In 1980, Jeremy Cohen publishes an essay in the July-October issue of the Harvard Theological Review (vol 73(3/4) pp. 495-520). The full title is "Original Sin as the Evil Inclination - A Polemicist's Appreciation of Human Nature".
In 1278, the Dominicans are changing Western civilization by examining the texts of Aristotle. A Spanish theologian writes a polemic for the conversion of Jews. In that polemic lies a potential jewel, juxtaposing the Christian doctrine of Original Sin with diverse medieval Jewish commentary on the Evil Inclination.
Alas, the jewel was precipitated with an old alchemy, set in a world of conflict, and then forgotten by the modern age.
Yet, it catches the keen eye of Jeremy Cohen.
My comments follow Cohen's article backwards, passing through IV to I, into the furnace of... dare I say it... 'who we are' as opposed to 'who we evolved to be'. Here, the jewel may be recast in the hypothesis of the first singularity and set in the scepter of the ever-present "now".
