Festival of Faith and Writing, 2008: Alan Jacobs

(It was early; the night had been short; I arrived early, flew to the bookstore, and returned a few minute into the presentation. I apologize for gaps or errors. Read the book!)

I first encountered Alan Jacobs on C-span, a few years ago, on his The Narnian book tour. I enjoyed the book's window into Lewis's time, place, family, and friends.

At this conference, Jacobs shared from the content of his latest book, Original Sin: A Cultural History. He traced a history of religious and social thought on the persistent stain of sin.

Early in church history, some Christians began to believe sin continued to imprison the soul even after death. They interceded for relief of the dead, and passage to heaven. There was a sense of the democracy of the dead and dying.

A pilgrim returning from the Holy Land shipwrecked on an island, where he met a hermit who claimed to have heard wailing souls of the dead. They begged for intercession by the living to speed their progress toward heaven. Demons were heard complaining of hindrances caused by prayers, especially those from the Abby at Cluny. When the pilgrim reached home, he shared the hermit's story with Odilo, a tenth-century abbot of Cluny. Odilo was moved to place greater priority on prayer and designated November 2 the Feast of All Souls, to remember the dead.

The idea of original sin was both a scandal and a comfort. Rousseau, in the 1760's, disputed it. He advocated freedom for children, believing constraint led to rebellion. (In practice, he found his own sons had “no disposition to obey.”) (laughter) In contrast, John Wesley gave a sermon on the education of children, in which he described them as "little atheists" who had no inclination to obey. (Rousseau sent his six children away to be raised by others; Wesley raised his own.)

What we think about our innate disposition has many implications for art, education, etc.

Jacobs shared Wendell Berry's response to a reader's protest of his essay, “Why I Am Not Going to Buy A Computer.” (The reader evidently wrote his conscience was clear, with regard to owning a computer.) Berry responded that almost all our consumption is extravagant; if our conscience is clear, we may be dead! (laughter) The conscience is like a smoke alarm; it's silence may mean the absence of either fire or a battery.

Belief in original sin opens the possibility of being aware of a divided self, of asking, “What is wrong with us?” The alternative is to be whole, but lost.
Prudentius demonstrated the dramatic character of inner division in his play Psychomachia. Everyman is the most famous play dealing with soul struggle, but depicts the soul following the battle, as it faces judgment. Castle of Perseverance is another medieval drama on the subject.

In contemporary culture, Tom and Jerry cartoons sometimes represented the inner tension as an angel and a devil advising disparate paths. The arguments of the devil were more entertaining, and usually won the day. (laughter)

The first temptation mankind faced was external. Those that followed were not. They combined pressures of outer demonic forces and our inner sinful nature. The devil on our shoulder has power only because of our inner weakness.

In his reading of The Lord of the Rings, Tom Shippey, Tolkien's best critic, describes Frodo's relationship with the Ring as affected by both internal and external forces. Eventually, at some point, his will and the will of the Ring are no longer separable.

Augustine wrote that we follow God's will rather than our own, with the goal of molding to the external until our inner sinful will is weakened.

In another modern morality tale, John Barton directed Ian McKellen in Faustus (1974). He had the actor using puppets to play the good and bad spirits—an effective representation.

The divided self is our inheritance.

R.D. Lang, a Scottish psychiatrist, felt people diagnosed with mental illness were often particularly sensitive to true social and personal incoherence. Voices they heard often told the truth. Normal people have been put to sleep.

To be undivided--having a clear conscience--is to be normal, but lost. To be a divided self is the best we can hope for in this world.

George Whitfield, minister, orator, and friend of Benjamin Franklin, was sometimes heard by as many as 30,000 people at a time. His preaching had an extraordinary influence on his audience. Awareness of the burden of original sin often led to conversion. He was a comfort to the insulted, degraded, and poor, but offended those with prestige. Those who felt they had no righteousness of their own to renounce were happy to hear Christ came for sinners, that God loves us just as we are, and asks only for repentant hearts.

An element of modern culture believes pain and suffering is always and only evil. Christianity teaches God is at work to redeem pain and suffering. There is something which can be learned from it before it is eliminated.
* * * * *
(I think questions from the audience began at this point.) Fine judgment is called for in using medication to treat [mental, emotional?] pain.

There are echoes of the doctrine of original sin in other cultures; some rabbis approach it.

The doctrine of original sin allows us to have a dark view of human nature and still be optimistic. Rebecca West, one of Jacobs' favorite writers, is not a Christian. She believes in sin but not redemption. Many Christians don't believe in original sin. It's an Augustinian idea, western. The Orthodox use different language to describe it.

Further reading: Atlantic interview, 10/00 (A Theology of Reading: The Hermeneutics of Love)
PBS Frontline interview, 12/03 (on being an evangelical Christian and an academic)
The Inexpressible Apocalypse, Touchstone, 9/04
Religion & Ethics interview, 11/05 (The Narnian)
Rumors of Glory, Books & Culture, 2007
Publisher's Weekly interview, 2/08 (Original Sin)
Listening: Mars Hill Audio interview, 2000 (on Philip Pullman's fantasy trilogy)