Adam's Slumber
The Meaning(lessness) of Sleep
On the sixth day, God created man in the image of God, and in the creation of Adam we see an interesting detail presented to us in the text. In Genesis 1:26-27 we are told that God created man in His image: “Let us create man in our image… male and female He created them”. The scent of Trinitarity wafts from this text and we see that interior to the very creation of man is the Tri-hypostatic nature of God. God exists as the fulness of life in His perfect communion between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but as we read about in Genesis 2, man was initially created alone. How is this bridge between the communion–the they of God–and the they of man, then, reconciled? Interior to the antinomy of the singularity and multiplicity of man is the tri-unity of God, we know this because it is in the antinomical He-They of God in Genesis 1:26-27 that man is created as simultaneously He and Them. The mystery here is that of the eternal dance of unity and multiplicity–of identity and identities. As we know (from the countless videos and articles Trey and I have done on the matter–as well as from the unanimous sayings of the Fathers) being is communion. To exist is to exist in relation to another, and it is only in the relation to the other that what makes an identity an identity can be found. It is only in the relation between identities and the harmony of their uniquenesses that the parts constituting the harmony can be seen in their fulness of meaning and life. It is only in the giving of the part to the whole that the part is constituted as a part–as existent at all. It is in the giving-up of oneself, the relinquishing of self-constitution that the self is constituted. The laying down of one’s conscious identity is the means by which the conscious identity comes to be. It is only in protological, self-sacrificial making oneself dark that the light of the other can shine as meaningful relations which establish one’s unique identity. It is in putting to rest the self–going to sleep–that the meaning of the day can impose itself and brighten our minds with meaning. This is the mystery of the sun rising from the dark gloom of the meaningless night to shine light and narrative upon the world.There is an interesting pattern interior to our very experience of identity, meaning, narrative and memory that reinforces this truth.
Physiologically, sleep is the time when all the events from the day are processed in your memory. Whereas the waking brain is optimised for acute processing of external stimuli, the sleeping brain is where these events are gathered together into a memorable narrative. When you are awake you perceive and respond to meaning, but without sleep, this meaning will be washed away in the river lethe (forgetfulness) as new stimuli occupy your waking mind. While awake, your mind is focused on responding directly to what is at hand and oftentimes when new information is presented, should it contradict prior information, the old information will be lost and forgotten. The hippocampus takes information pertinent at the time and processes it in a fast-adaptable manner to serve short term memory. In sleep, however, the memories of the day are reassessed by the neocortex in a manner which sees the bigger picture, so to speak. It is in sleep that the memories which, while awake, would simply be replaced by new information, find their rest in the narrative of one’s life. This is a beautifully theological phenomenon. It is in rest–in relinquishing control–that the meaning and narrative of life find their structure and identity. In Adam’s waking witness to God’s creation of the garden of Eden and in Adam’s naming of the animals he is confronting new information constantly, and it is upon finding an antinomy or unexplainable lack in his direct experience in the world that he then falls into a “deep sleep” (Gen. 2:21).
On the sixth day of creation, God created land animals and then man. After man’s creation, God demonstrates His creative power for man in the creation of the garden of Eden. Man is created and sees, immediately, the beauty of the world His creator has given him to take pleasure in. God plants a garden before the eyes of man, showing him by what power he has been brought into existence. Man marvels at this and almost as if there was an anticipation even before his creation, Adam jumps at the opportunity to participate in the beautification of God’s good and true creation. God presents man with the animals which he has created for us to care for and nurture – to pour our hearts into just as God pours His heart into caring for us. Adam descends to the gate of the garden and carefully names the animals presented to him by God. But it is in his observation of creation that man sees something is missing – there is an unexplainable lack. This lack is precisely in the, as of now, unfulfilled creation of man as truly in the image of God. God exists eternally in communion. Within the trinity there is a perfect outpouring of each of the three persons towards each other – and it is precisely in this perfect humility of each of the three persons that the very possibility of creation being called forth as that which is “other” to God arises. Man sees that every creature of God exists in relation. Every creature has one to whom it is joined, and from whom it receives love – and in this reception of love, life. Here lies the antinomy, unsurmountable by the waking process of memory in Adam’s mind.
Adam was created in the image of God, in the image of the fulness of communion in the Trinitarian Godhead. God exists as Trinity, and thus as the fulness of perfect life. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all sharing, in their unique personal rhythms, in the nature (Supernature, rather) of what it means to be God. Man is created in this image, to be a being of communion. Thus, while God had created Adam, alone, in the image of God, there lacked a fundamental principle in the life of Adam which he experienced as a contradiction to the created world which he perceived with his waking mind: “Adam saw there was no helper suitable for him” (Gen 2:20). Here, in this unexplainable lack, arose the necessity for man to relinquish control over the situation, looking to the One from Whom meaning and narrative flows. To put it simply, Adam couldn’t figure out what was lacking–he couldn’t beat this contradiction/antinomy–and he needed to go to bed. In Adam’s sleep the memories and information encountered from the day are reordered in a manner in which narrative and meaning flows from event to event. Adam sees, in his sleeping mind, the divine plan which underscores and overarches the seeming contradiction of his loneliness. Adam wakes up and this narratival meaning of the divine plan is presented to him in the highest form possible: a friend. Identity exists only in communion, and it is only in the face of an other that one can understand one’s own identity. The colour yellow only exists as the colour yellow in its relations to every other colour. Thus, the unsurmountable contradiction of Adam’s own identity is resolved in his gaze towards his other, his helpmeet. It is in the face of Eve that Adam sees the resolution to the antinomies of his waking experience. It is in the relinquishing of control in his sleep, the giving of himself to the other, that his contradictions are resolved.
It is in this filling of the sleeping, empty self by the light of the other that Adam comes not only to understand the antinomies he encountered, but also his very own identity and existence as image of God. “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Gen. 2:23). It is in seeing Eve that Adam comes to understand what his own bones and flesh are. It is in the face of the other, encountered through the relinquishing of control in deep sleep, that Adam comes to rest. His friend, helpmeet, and other, Eve, presents in herself Adam’s identity and it is in his other that his identity rests. Since God is love, and man is the image of God, it is in this self-sacrificial love and recognition of the other that the identity of man can be and is constituted.