God says to him, “Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the

At this point in the Genesis story, we have been barely introduced to God as character. Nonetheless, these inexhaustibly rich opening lines describe the essential nature of the cosmic order: the existence of a process that transforms chaos and possibility into the habitable order that is good, aiming at very good; the proclamation that this process

Here is a paradoxical juxtaposition: the fall from childhood naivete is a prerequisite to maturity—

The temptation that eternally confronts the woman, therefore, is the idea that maternal benevolence can be pridefully extended to the entire world, to even the most poisonous of snakes, and the associated temptation to make much of that, on the social front—

(“I can abide by whatever values I choose”—something that almost immediately deteriorates into “I can do whatever I want” or, more accurately, “Whatever impulse grips me rules.”)

The greatest challenge to what is and what should be, by consensus and tradition, is always to be found in what is least familiar and most frightening.

The fruit of the immortal serpent is that which cannot be made edible. But the temptation to bite off more than can be chewed nonetheless perpetually beckons.

In the parable of the mustard seed (Matthew 13:31–32; Mark 4:30–32; Luke 13:18–19), the Kingdom of Heaven is portrayed as contained within and emerging from something small but powerfully alive. In the parable of the sower (Luke 8:5–15; Matthew 13:3–23; Mark 4:3–20), those who listen or fail to do so are compared to the soil. Some seed falls on the

The tyrant suppresses and simultaneously attempts to supplant the Logos, while the enslaved are too intimidated and lazy—too faithless and arrogant, in truth—to make that Logos manifest within.