DONATE
Menu
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE

© 2025 First Things. All rights reserved.

SUBSCRIBE

Shared Joy

Peter J. Leithart

John Paul also ( Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology Of The Body , p. 161 ) notes that Adam reacts to the appearance of Eve with the first expression of joy: “For the first time, the man (male) shows joy and even exultation, for which he had no reason before, due to the lack of a being similar to himself. Joy for the other human being, for the second ‘I,’ dominates in the words the man (male) speaks on seeing the woman (female).”

Adam has no joy in isolation. Joy occurs in and with another. Joy happens in the between because joy is a gift of the Spirit who is the divine Between.

Next

Peter J. Leithart

Peter J. Leithart is president of the Theopolis Institute, Birmingham, Alabama. He posts regularly at his Substack, Notes from Beth-Elim.

MORE BY THE AUTHOR More RECENT ARTICLES
BECOME A MEMBER

Of America’s Most Influential Publication of Religion and Public Life

SUBSCRIBE
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Rome and the Church in the United States

George Weigel

Archbishop Michael J. Curley of Baltimore, who confirmed my father, was a pugnacious Irishman with a taste…

Marriage Annulment and False Mercy

Luma Simms

Pope Leo XIV recently told participants in a juridical-pastoral formation course of the Roman Rota that the…

Undercover in Canada’s Lawless Abortion Industry

Jonathon Van Maren

On November 27, 2023, thirty-six-year-old Alissa Golob walked through the doors of the Cabbagetown Women’s Clinic in…