Saving Glances in Times of Exile

Abstract

In the beginning, there is no Cain. There’s something ‘good and beautiful’ instead, that, on the sixth day, with Adam became ‘very good and beautiful’. It is the blessing that hovers over the created world. The beginning of the earth, the living beings and humans is goodness and beauty, which tells us what is the deepest and truest vocation of the earth, the living. It also tells us that the earth is alive because it is located within a relationship of love and mutuality. For the mountains, rocks and rivers are also living things, otherwise those other beings we call the living would be surrounded by death, and the little life that would be left would be just too sad. The first chapter of Genesis is a sublime hymn to life and creation, with Adam, the human being as its climax. And all these creatures are good, very good, beautiful and blessed because they were called to life by an overflow of love.

I took its ancient words and my old questions and compared them with the vicissitudes of history, culture and customs. In short, I used my Judeo-Christian faith as a key, and I was confirmed in the belief that in our days it is the only possible key to use.

(Sergio Quinzio, A comment to the Bible).