Serpents and Sensibility

The poet Emily Dickinson, called a snake "the narrow fellow in the grass." We are instinctually wary of snakes, but because of evolutionary mismatch we are insufficiently wary of modern serpents of the human variety. We miss them behind their aprons, stethoscopes, clownish outfits, barrister's wigs, clerical collars and intellectual personas. This is why the injunction of Jesus to "Be shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves" is so particularly relevant today. This book explores why we overestimate the threat of snakes and underestimate the threat of human serpents. It discusses the emergence of various kinds of evil and why Jesus is so important both as a model for humanity and as the antidote to evil.