Eve and the Serpent: A Rational Choice to Err

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" narrati...

Description complète

Enregistré dans:  
Détails bibliographiques
Publié dans:Journal of religion and health
Auteur principal: Dekker, Sidney W. A. (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
Vérifier la disponibilité: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
En cours de chargement...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Publié: Springer Science + Business Media B. V. [2007]
Dans: Journal of religion and health
Sujets non-standardisés:B Human error
B Serpent
B Eve
B Sin
Accès en ligne: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Résumé: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.
ISSN:1573-6571
Contient:Enthalten in: Journal of religion and health
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10943-007-9118-1