Colossian Forum

If Jesus reveals the eternal Logos to be the action of love that unites and harmonizes creatures, then the Fall refers to an a-logical, irrational, unloving way of being in the world. Maximus says as much in his Commentary on the Our Father: “the Word is the uniting of what is distant…and unreason (alogos) is the division of what is united.”[2] The Fall, in other words, refers to a condition in which relationships between creatures are beset by struggle and strife so that creatures are unable to realize all that God wants them to be. To be in a fallen state is to be frustrated in your ability to realize the potential that God intends, and prevented from living in harmonious relationship with others, the world, and with God.

Is it crucial for us to identify the “Fall” with a particular couple (Adam and Eve) in a particular place (the Garden of Eden) at a particular time (roughly six thousand years ago)? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But it certainly is crucial to appreciate that the disordering of relationships (which is a denial of the eternal Logos and a distortion of each creature’s own logos) is something that happens in time and in creation, and that it has effects that touch all creation. Is it reflected in the development of a certain kind of self-consciousness or a particular way of standing in the world? Of course, we would dearly love to know exactly how and when the Fall came to be, but scripture is not interested in explaining something like the origins of evil or the Fall. What scripture does is describe the nature of our predicament, and then lead us into the ways of redemption and peace.