O diabo, a serpente e a queda - I

Por que razão a interpretação segundo a qual a serpente é um simples animal (não o diabo) é problemática

- As human beings, our acts are voluntary or free insofar as they are motivated. An unmotivated act is accidental, not free. But as embodied rational beings, we are motivated by what we perceive and by conclusions we draw from our engagement with the world. (…) If this is so, then the first transgression must have been motivated by something perceived in the garden.

- Because our freedom is embodied and responsive rather than purely spiritual and originative, if the serpent is just another bodily creature in the world, then the temptation toward primal sin follows as a consequence of the way God creates. He makes us free in a certain way, but the created order contains realities and impulses that are intrinsically tempting and out of balance.

- If the serpent is just an animal, then sin emerges out of the human encounter with the natural order. 

- (On the contrary) If we suppose the existence of a fallen angel, then we have a way of giving a more subtle form to the problem of evil.

- The devil (as purely spiritual being) is motivated solely by his choice of evil. The devil falls strictly because of his choice and not because of any other feature or quality of the created order. The first transgression, the fall of the devil occurs in creation, but not because of creation.

R.R. Reno, Genesis, 2010, 80ss.