Claudel’s theology reframes Eve’s disobedience as justified divine service

Evidence

In the eyes of Jews and Christians, Eve’s disobedience had put her daughters in a very bad position: we see how badly the Fathers of the Church have mistreated women. But here, on the contrary, she is justified if one accepts that she has served divine purposes. “Woman! that service she once by her disobedience rendered to God in the earthly Paradise; that deep agreement reached between her and him; that flesh she put at the disposal of redemption by way of the fault!” There is no doubt she is the source of sin, and through her man lost paradise. But man’s sins have been redeemed, and this world is blessed anew: “We have not left the paradise of delight in which God first put us!” — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 507

Categorization

• XREF: Contrasts with the misogynist Church Fathers discussed in earlier chapters of The Second Sex — a reversal within the same tradition. — connects to: Claudel gives woman a special, even scandalous, place in cosmic harmony