Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom

From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John

Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture

Jane Austen
(A Biography)

Solomon Among the Postmoderns

The Baptized Body

1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary

The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter

A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons

Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature

Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen

The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism

A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel

Against Christianity

From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution

Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy

Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper

A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament

Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature

Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays

Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life

The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church

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Bible - OT - Genesis: Adam’s solitide

In one of the early meditations in his Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology Of The Body, John Paul II mused on the anthropological import of Adam’s initial solitude in the garden. He notes that the story of Adam’s naming the animals points to the fact that “self-knowledge goes hand in hand with knowledge of this world, of all visible creatures, of all the living beings to which man has given their names.” This is self-knowledge, and not merely knowledge of the other creatures because in naming the animals Adam discovers “his own dissimilarity before them,” so that “with this knowledge, which makes him go in some way outside of his own being, man at the same time reveals himself to himself in all the distinctiveness of his being.”

The naming of the animals, which takes place before the differentiation of Adam into male and female, is thus a way of displaying humanity’s distinction from the animals, the fact that “he cannot identify himself essentially with the visible world of the other living beings.”  And this, in turn, places man in his fundamental relation, with God: “the created man finds himself from the first moment of his existence before God.”

And yet (beyond John Paul): It is not good for him to be alone before God.  Before God, not merely in his “cultural” work of filling and subduing, man needs a helper suitable to him.  He needs a liturgical partner.