It is a seemingly simple,conspicuous act, but careful analysis reveals thatMichelangelo used his artistic, academic, and poetic genius toembed layers of symbolic meanings. Atcursory glance, “Separation of Light from Darkness” depictsGod’s first act of Genesis 1:3-5 (King James Bible), in whichhe creates light and separates it from the darkness, envelopingthe world he has just created. Upon discovery of Michelangelo’s concealed neuroanatomicalimages in “Separation of Light from Darkness,” by Suk andTamargo in 2010, there remained a compelling need toinvestigate in greater detail the reasoning behindMichelangelo’s depiction of imagery of the brain, brainstem,spinal cord, eyeballs and optic nerves in the Sistine Chapel. In literary criticism, it has provoked a continuing debate between theologically committed and secular scholars about whether there can be an idea of literature which embraces both sacred and secular writing, whilst fully acknowledging the difference between them." The idea of literature as being a site for "theology" reflection that includes the secular underlies this particular study of the relationship between the iconically symbolic figures of Adam, Venus, and Faust.
For the theological critic of secular culture, that search implies an attempt to develop theological concepts which will also illuminate the secular culture in which theology takes place.
This idea echoes a decisive emphasis of post-conciliar catholic theology and cultural criticism: the search for a common language in which the community of faith and the secular city can speak to each other. In his introduction to The Present Word, a Festschrift for Nicholas Boyle, editor John Walker notes the following: "In his book Sacred and Secular Scriptures (2004) Nicholas Boyle speaks of literature as the ‘site’ of theology.
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