"Original Nakedness"

Based on pages 23-26 from The Theology of the Body in Simple Language

The community of husband and wife is a community of love that is accepted as given by God and that glorifies and worships God as the Creator.  It is therefore the church in its original form. And because it is the church, it is a community bound with an eternal bond.

Creation and Fall, p101.  Bonhoeffer

Before “original sin” there are three other experiences that are even “more original” – reaching deep into our foundational innocence as humans.  These original experiences have perennial significance, coloring all other experiences:

·       Original solitude – points to the uniqueness of humans   as the only divine image bearers in Creation

·       Original unity – points to human relatedness and communion, which is inscribed in the body as male and female

·       Original nakedness – this is the key to understanding a biblical anthropology fully and will be discussed in relationship to the experience of shame.

Original nakedness is not attached to shame (contrast Genesis 2:25 and 3:7).  In original nakedness, both man and woman were able to see the dimension of solitude and unity in their own bodies.  There was no shame in the beginning because there was no risk of being misunderstood.  They could see the person in the body of the other and express themselves in the fullness of unity.  Original nakedness is original solitude and original unity as they appear in the body.  In this sense, original nakedness is a type of “pre-sacrament,” in that it is the visibility of a mystery in the bodies of Adam and Eve, the visibility of the connection between the body and love.   Original nakedness reveals that our bodies must be put together with a personal encounter of love:  when put together with another, I see that my body makes sense.

We need to understand shame in order to understand the lack of shame associated with original
nakedness. 

            ·  Shame is a state of consciousness, an interior state of self-awareness

            ·  Adam and Eve’s experience of nakedness in Genesis 3:7 is more than sight (visual) 
                but marks a change in the “experience of the meaning of one’s own body” as a gift.  
                This “gift nature” of the body and person will be explored in later talks.

            ·  Shame is thus a boundary experience, linking original and historical man (Genesis 1-2
                and 3ff.).

·      By going “back to the beginning,” Jesus himself establishes the continuity and connection between the original and historical states of humanity. 

Shame is a point of reference – the flip side – for understanding original nakedness, for it indicates a loss of the fullness that our solitude and unity reveal. Shame demonstrates that something is good, and at the same time demonstrates that something has been lost, something has been broken.

             ·   Shame leads one to protect oneself, and helps us understand our dignity and value.

·       Without shame, we lose the value of who we are.  Shame allows us to protect something that is precious.

·       Shame can be  the experience of fear in the presence of another “I,” especially a fear for one’s own “I.”

·       Shame is a boundary or rule for mutual relations, for guiding us into the communion of persons.

·       Shame prompts us to ask “what is the fullness of experience or consciousness that original nakedness points to?”

“Naked and unashamed” in Genesis 2:25 is a hendiadys*– meaning something like “fully naked.”   There is no interior hiding or withholding in original nakedness – the body truly reveals the person. This is a prerequisite for true interpersonal communion.  (It is possible to have sex without giving oneself to the other; it is possible to “communicate” without ever communing with the other, without sharing what is uniquely yours with the other.)

Christopher West illustrates the “flip side” nature of shame:  Some of us have had the experience of getting out of the shower when someone unexpectedly walks in.  We instinctively grab a towel to cover ourselves.  Why?  Each of us has a deep need for affirmation and acceptance of my person and a need for the other person to affirm the person revealed by my body.  We protect ourselves for fear that our dignity will not be upheld by the other.  This is how shame gives us the “flip side” of our original nakedness.  (See TOB Explained, p. 92).

*Hendiadys-the expression of an idea by the use of usually two independent words connected by and (as nice and warm) instead of the usual combination of independent word and its modifier (as nicely warm) (Webster)

Discussion Questions

1  In original nakedness, we see that the body—not just the soul—reflects the image of God. In the body, in a special way, we see certain attributes (such as vulnerability and openness to others). Where do we see these attributes in God? What other attributes do you see in your body? Can you trace them to God?

2  I experience shame when I look wrongly at another. Likewise, I experience shame when another looks wrongly at me. Discuss how both instances of shame serve to protect the dignity of the person.

3  The three original experiences—solitude, unity and nakedness—are “more original” than sin. What hope is revealed about our human condition by this reflection? How does it broaden your understanding of redemption to know that Jesus not only saves us from something (sin), but that he also restores, or saves us for something?