Desires in Paradise

Book excerpt: For Augustine, the pre-Fall Paradise was a life of tranquil love and joy. The post-Fall world is marked by loss of control over our bodies and emotions. But whatexactly happened in the Fall, and why? How does desire relate to man's disobedience, and is there any sense in which we can recover what Adam and Eve havelost?In treating City 14 as an integral whole, this study explores Augustine's critiquesof the Manichean and Platonist positions that the body is bad or evil, and discusseshis biblical doctrine of emotions in light of the two-cities theme. The entirestudy concerns topics germane to the paradisal situation: the theme of the PrimalFall and the will being 'spontaneous', the exploration of the disobedience ofthe genitals in all forms of sex, including married life, and the workings of Adamand Eve's hypothetical sexual experience in the pre-Fall world.