The painting on the book cover is by Ivana Noble and is called In Paradise (oil on canvas, 2020). It situates the search for what it means to be human in the creation narratives. As in the interpretation of St Irenaeus, Adam and Eve are here as children. Their world is full of possibilities. As Origen used to say, the beginning and the end are in a mutually enriching dynamic. There are elements of both being called to life and the beatific vision towards which they are to grow. The first people belong together with the natural and the angelic. The tree of life gives them food and they can share the food with others. The lion is an allusion to the vision of renewed harmony in Isaiah 11, the monkey a little reference to the theory of evolution (as well as to the artist’s favourite monkey from Brazil), and a way of speaking about a different form of harmony, including different interpretations of the mystery of life. Owls, the symbols of wisdom, old and young, look worried because of the snake stealing one of the fruits of the tree of knowledge and promising sight. Protection is seen in the sky, in the tree temptation and emptiness are already breaking in. Both Adam and Eve make movements with both hands, one giving from the gifts it receives, the other empty, stretched towards the unknown future. The naïve style and the combination of colours evoke the direct way in which children ascribe meaning to events and relationships. The choice of the symbols emphasizes that the decisions in which who we are to become are situated always exist within a greater complexity of good and bad options that precede our own contributions. The absolute beginning like the ultimate fulfilment lies beyond even the creation and the redemption stories. The here and now captured in a symbolic way in the painting is framed in a golden sky, like the icons. Unlike in the icons, though, there is movement as well, not stasis; there is observation and communication going on, adequately expressed for the possibilities of a child-like human imagination.
About the Cover Illustration
in Who Is the Human Being? An Ecumenical Approach to Theological Anthropology
Übersetzer:in:
Tim Noble
Tim Noble
Search for other papers by Tim Noble in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Tim Noble in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed