It was “not good” for Adam to be alone.

But he wasn’t alone. He was alone with God .

But God judged that “alone with God” was “not good.” Adam’s state became fully good only when another person joined him.

As John Paul II says ( Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology Of The Body p. 149-50), Adam began to discover his identity even in his solitude by naming the animals. But the discovery of himself in solitude was negative, revealing what he “is not.” In naming animals, he distinguishes himself from them, and here there is a germ of self-consciousness, subjectivity, and personhood. Yet Adam knew who he was more fully when Eve appeared alongside.

Good soteriology and ecclesiology flow from this starting point.