Addiction and Grace: Love and Spirituality in the Healing of Addictions

by Gerald G. May

In response to the humans’ behavior, God says, “I will multiply your pains in childbearing…. With suffering shall you get your food….” God’s response is usually understood as a straightforward punishment, and it certainly reads that way. But along the lines of Buddhism’s Noble Truths, God’s words are also a statement of the way things are: suffering is a fact of life, and it is caused by attachment. God then sends them forth and sets cherubs and a flaming sword “to guard the way to the tree of life.” Throughout the Genesis account, God may appear afraid that humans will “reach out and pick also from the tree of life,” thus gaining sufficient divine qualities to become competitors for God’s power and reign. If this were indeed God’s motivation, it would come from attachment to power and glory, and the actions springing from it would be unjust. The cherubs and flaming sword, and the banishment itself, would serve to protect God against humans. Yet, when read with an appreciation of human addiction, Genesis becomes the story of a free and purely loving Creator who knows that Eve and Adam will not be able to withstand the compulsion to eat from that second tree. Banishment is thus more protection than punishment. The cherubs and the flaming sword are there to protect humanity’s freedom rather than to defend God’s power. In a tender maternal moment before Eve and Adam leave, God makes clothing for them. This is not the action of a frightened God who clings to divinity, but of a...