The Illumination of Chapter 2

I've been reading my eldest brother's PhD thesis. No, this is not a usual thing for me. But we were discussing punitive justice the other day (as one does) and he suggested I read it, and loaned me a copy -- a big hardbound book which looks twice as big as it actually is, because apparently PhD theses are printed double-spaced on one side of the leaf. Perhaps that's so examiners can write all over it? I dunno. Anyway, he said to skip the start and begin reading at chapter 3. I looked at the table of contents and began reading at chapter 2. Why? Because it looked as if chapter 3 was using concepts defined in chapter 2, so I wanted to understand them first.

Oh, and what is my brother's PhD thesis actually about? It combines theology and psychology in an examination of the Eden narrative in Genesis from a psychological perspective. But not a Jungian symbolic perspective, or of trying to get into the psyche of the author, but examining the psychology of the people in the story. As people, not symbols. But I haven't gotten to that bit yet. I've only just read chapter 2, where there's a defining of terms. The terms of "guilt" and "shame". I don't know about you, but for me, guilt and shame go hand-in-hand so much that I've found it somewhat difficult to untangle them in my head. I mean, I know they're different from each other, but I haven't been sure what precisely it is that distinguishes them. Reading that chapter 2, I it found rather clarifying, so I decided to stop and write this post. The following are my reflections and thinky thoughts about what I got out of it.( Read more... )

Share your thoughts, if you will.