Eve and the serpent: A rational choice to err
(2007) In Journal of Religion and Health 46(4). p.571-579- Abstract
- In dealing with inexplicable disaster, like the untimely death of a child in a hospital, we increasingly turn to the justice system for accountability and retribution. While seemingly sensible, criminalizing human error has a range of negative consequences. But it does offer "good" narratives of failure as the result of human fault-even at the cost of guilt. Such narratives allow us to pinpoint a cause: people made a rational choice to err and should be punished. This allows us to imagine ourselves in control over random, meaningless events. This paper traces Judeo-Christian roots of such regulative ideals in Western moral thinking, by examining the Genesis account of Eve and the Serpent, and St. Augustine's interpretation of it.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/966273
- author
- Dekker, Sidney LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2007
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- human error, eve, sin, serpent
- in
- Journal of Religion and Health
- volume
- 46
- issue
- 4
- pages
- 571 - 579
- publisher
- Springer
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000250999800009
- scopus:36348967710
- ISSN
- 0022-4197
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10943-007-9118-1
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- a150e766-9f64-477b-97b1-ee54571c93c5 (old id 966273)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 16:45:42
- date last changed
- 2022-02-27 23:27:56
@article{a150e766-9f64-477b-97b1-ee54571c93c5, abstract = {{In dealing with inexplicable disaster, like the untimely death of a child in a hospital, we increasingly turn to the justice system for accountability and retribution. While seemingly sensible, criminalizing human error has a range of negative consequences. But it does offer "good" narratives of failure as the result of human fault-even at the cost of guilt. Such narratives allow us to pinpoint a cause: people made a rational choice to err and should be punished. This allows us to imagine ourselves in control over random, meaningless events. This paper traces Judeo-Christian roots of such regulative ideals in Western moral thinking, by examining the Genesis account of Eve and the Serpent, and St. Augustine's interpretation of it.}}, author = {{Dekker, Sidney}}, issn = {{0022-4197}}, keywords = {{human error; eve; sin; serpent}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{4}}, pages = {{571--579}}, publisher = {{Springer}}, series = {{Journal of Religion and Health}}, title = {{Eve and the serpent: A rational choice to err}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10943-007-9118-1}}, doi = {{10.1007/s10943-007-9118-1}}, volume = {{46}}, year = {{2007}}, }