DONATE
Menu
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE

© 2026 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

Restoring Man at Notre Dame

Carl R. Trueman

It is fascinating to be an outsider on the inside of an institution going through times of…

Deliver Us from Evil

Kari Jenson Gold

In a recent New York Times article entitled “Freedom With a Side of Guilt: How Food Delivery…

Natural Law Needs Revelation

Peter J. Leithart

Natural law theory teaches that God embedded a teleological moral order in the world, such that things…