{"id":231,"date":"2011-11-17T20:39:29","date_gmt":"2011-11-17T20:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=231"},"modified":"2011-11-17T20:39:29","modified_gmt":"2011-11-17T20:39:29","slug":"var-_gaq-_gaq-_gaq-push_setaccount-ua-25646250-2-_gaq-push_trackpageview-function-var-ga-document-createelementscript-ga-type-textjava-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=231","title":{"rendered":"<script type=\"text\/javascript\">    var _gaq = _gaq || [];   _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-25646250-2']);   _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);    (function() {     var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text\/javascript'; ga.async = true;     ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https:\/\/ssl' : 'http:\/\/www') + '.google-analytics.com\/ga.js';     var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);   })();  <\/script>  <\/heat> Session Seven &#8211; Expulsion from Eden &#8211; Held on Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Introductory Question \/ Discussion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Did you grow up thinking that there was an apple tree in the Garden of Eden?\u00a0 Well, if you\u2019ve read the story, you know that there is no mention of an apple tree.\u00a0 If you google \u201capple tree and the garden of Eden\u201d you can learn the history of how we began to associate the apple tree with the garden.\u00a0 As we study these early stories we might find more than just the apple tree are in our imagination but not in the story.\u00a0 It takes discipline to read the words as they are; the starting point of any adult study is attention to the words.<\/p>\n<p>I would invite you then to reread our passage, again paying attention to the notes for this chapter. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/3\">http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/3<\/a>. \u00a0If you have your own bible [hard copy] notice whether there is a heading to the chapter and compare the heading in your bible with that of the online version, our version has the heading, <strong>The Fall of Man,<\/strong> while the online version has <em>Expulsion from Eden<\/em>. \u00a0Which of these two heading is a more accurate account of the story itself?\u00a0 Which one is more an interpretation of the meaning of the story from a Christian perspective?\u00a0 See if you can determine what is the copy right date on you bible, the online version is the New American Bible with a copy right date of 11\/11\/2002. Now you are in a position to have an educated guess at which heading was written earlier.\u00a0 At least in our version, they are both \u201cCatholic;\u201d yet quite different. \u00a0What do you think about the change?\u00a0 How do you feel about it? Why was the heading changed?\u00a0 Hint: Biblical Scholarship.\u00a0 To Rise to the Level of our Times is to be informed by the best opinions of the day, even if the change makes us feel uncomfortable.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More questions \/ Discussions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jody observed that there are two trees in the garden but the Lord God forbade them to eat from only the tree of good and bad.\u00a0 The story doesn\u2019t say anything about not eating of the tree of life.\u00a0 Yet at the end of the story we read, \u201cHe expelled the man, stationing the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword east of the garden of Eden, to guard the way to the tree of life.\u201d Obviously the woman is expelled too but the story just assumes that without saying it. What is the meaning of these two trees?\u00a0 How do they relate to one another?\u00a0 What different roles do they play in the story?<\/p>\n<p>To move from a literal interpretation, identify meaningful symbols in your life, times when you were moved are clues to symbols; a song, a poem, a gift, a view, a movie, etc.\u00a0 The two trees are not literal, to imagine them in that way is to rob them of their symbolic value, they mean so much more and the more depends upon your own inner life.\u00a0 And they have something to say about that inner life.<\/p>\n<p>Our group saw in the tree of good and bad a symbol for right and wrong, a symbol of our moral landscape.\u00a0 We talked about the fact that much of our moral discernment is culturally influenced.\u00a0 This lead us to ask, for Catholics at least, are there moral rights and wrongs, period, absolutes.\u00a0 Without giving away our discussion, how would you respond?\u00a0 Why does the scripture tells us not judge?\u00a0 What would be a moral choice between God and country [USA]?\u00a0 What role does \u201cbeing naked\u201d and shame play in the story?<\/p>\n<p>Does \u201cthe middle of the garden\u201d have a meaning, does \u201cEast of Eden\u201d have a meaning or are they simply directional pointers?<\/p>\n<p>What would happen to the story if there was no commandment? Only after you try to answer that question, should you move to this, what is the role of the commandment in the story?\u00a0 What does the man and woman\u2019s failure mean to us today?\u00a0 Can we blame them for what is wrong with us, our community, our society, our history?\u00a0 Or are they simply representative of us?\u00a0 Are we, in our core, good or bad?\u00a0 Is bad manifested in our \u201cunwillingness.\u201d If you were to identify the areas of life in which you are simply \u201cunwilling\u201d where would those areas be?\u00a0 How do you respond to the \u201cunwillingness\u201d in the other?<\/p>\n<p>As we struggled with these questions, Sean remarked \u2026 in the catechism it says to look at the scripture either in a literal sense or a spiritual sense and then it subdivides into a moral, anagogical, and analogical.\u00a0 And \u2026 so I\u2019m seating there running those things through my head, trying to see what fits.<\/p>\n<p>Your questions, comments, responses to any or all of the questions posed are welcomed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introductory Question \/ Discussion Did you grow up thinking that there was an apple tree in the Garden of Eden?\u00a0 Well, if you\u2019ve read the story, you know that there is no mention of an apple tree.\u00a0 If you google &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=231\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions\/233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}