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understanding of original sin in demonstrating how the sin of Adam relates to
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the whole of humanity ‘as to a single spiritual-corporal superpersonality’ .
Elsewhere this ‘superpersonality’ is referred to as the ‘Human Soul’, a
conception reminiscent of Teilhard’s vision of one super-organism reaching
towards Omega and composed of a unity of individuals.
II. THE FALL
It is this qualitative shift towards humanity that makes the Fall so tragic and so
severe. The Fall of Genesis 3 represents a real breakage, resulting from an error
of human judgment at the very beginning of human development. It is a
distortion or spiritual disease that has infected humanity and the event
responsible for human moral evil. In the same way that the spiritualisation of
Adam was a single event in time, in Isagogics, Men tells us that human sinfulness
is a ‘universal and obvious fact’ that by necessity appeared in one single
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moment for the first time in the history of human life .
In Appendix 8 Part 4 of Magicism and Monotheism, Men discusses various
approaches to the interpretation of the Fall of Adam in Genesis 3. An
interpretation should not be strictly allegorical, since ‘the Yahwist and Apostle
Paul talk about the Fall as an event, not just as though it is a characteristic of
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human existence’ . Some kind of fact lies behind this story, one possibly
connected with the explosive, catastrophic character of the final moment of
becoming human. This close connection between the Creation of Adam and
the Fall of Adam is reflected in Men’s ‘discussion’ About Good and Evil where he
tells us: ‘When in [the human] a spiritual origin awoke, when in him awoke a
rational mind, when in him awoke human characteristics, they cut him off from
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nature’ .

9 Men: Bibliological Dictionary 1, p283. Библиологический Словарь, [Фонд имени Александра
Меня. Москва. 2002 г.] (Bibliological Dictionary. [Alexander Men Foundation. Moscow. 2002]).
Can be found at http://www.alexandermen.ru/pan.html
10 Men: Isagogics, p131. Исагогика. Ветхий Завет. [Московская Духовная Академия. Загорск.
1982 г.] (Isagogics. The Old Testament. [Moscow Religious Academy. Zagorsk. 1982]). Can be found
at http://www.alexandermen.ru/pan.html
11 ягвист и Павел говорят о Падении как о событии, а не просто как о свойстве
человеческого бытия
12 Men: About Good and Evil. “О Добре и Зле”, Магизм, Оккультизм, Христианство. [Фонд имени
Александра Меня. Москва. 1996 г.] (‘About Good and Evil’, Magicism, Occultism, Christianity.
[Alexander Men Foundation. Moscow. 1996]). Can be found at
http://www.alexandermen.ru/pan.html

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