Our Expulsion (2022) Disegno da Edwin Loftus

The Biblical tale of Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden has many subtle interpretive variations that I have tried many times to discuss in the language of recognizable subjects, "representational art."
This image portrays the moment when Adam and Eve are confronted by an angel of God baring a flaming sword who informs them that they are being expelled from Paradise.
The tale itself, whether literally true or not, is an allegory of what changed in their relationship with God when they defied His ban on eating the fruit of the Forbidden Trees, planted therein. They have two choices, "Knowledge of Good and Evil" or "Immortality", and they choose to taste Knowledge.
One could easily fill a thick book with the implications of just this part of their story. One aspect of it is that when ignorant of a choice of accepting the Rule of God, they did so and lived in Paradise. But once they were aware of a choice, they were no longer fit for Paradise until they decided which way they would choose.
In this approach, eating the fruit is not an "Original Sin" which all humanity has inherited. It is an original choice, which all of humanity must make for themselves. Sin lies not in inheriting the consequences of a choice made by our ancestors, it is in choosing in our own lives not to accept God as our Ruler.
Without getting into all of the variations in interpreting the implications of that difference, let me concede that this is not the dominant thought in Christianity and in the past would have been considered heresy and punished by most Christians with internal exile or death. A common belief today is that a "choice" that leads to destruction if you don't choose as you are told to is not a real choice but an incentive to lie.
But if an institution based on the worship of God, takes away from humans the choice God gave humanity (each of us), is that really an institution that accepts the Rule of God? Today, no institution of Christianity attempts to do this ... but in the 2,000-year history of Christianity, that is a fairly recent reform.
Issues upon issues, upon issues arise when one tries to delve into such questions.
Fifty years ago, as a student of Art History and in the field of Philosophy, the special issues related to Ontology, (theories of reality), and Epistemology, (what is known and how can it be considered known), I was fascinated by "movements" in "modern art" that claimed an intellectual superiority over earlier, "representational" "movements" in art.

Oh ... Really?

I respect some of the "movements" in modern non-representational and representational art. But anyone claiming superiority of one over the other is an intellectual fraud.

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