Week 7 - Cobb, Chapter 7

The first assumption made by Cobb in this chapter is that humankind has lost something, a Paradise, an Eden, an ultimate happiness. Something is broken and we are trying to restore it. From this stance, sin can be seen from two different perspectives, which are not necessarily in contradiction.

The first one is what he calls the covenant/jeremiad perspective, which can be summed up to the idea that a general/natural/divine/superior rule or set of rules has been broken and that judgment ensues, and all the consequences that come with it.

The second one, the Gothic perspective, is more focused on the evil itself, on what is bad in and around us, and how we can inherit it from our peers. Pushed to the extreme, this can lead to hopelessness.

I do believe these two trends resonate with the hearts of people, even though not always identified as sin. How can we use this to bring a message of hope and liberation from these patterns?

We’ll see what the next chapter has to say about this.