Original Sin: Illuminating the Riddle
(New Studies in Biblical Theology No. 5)
By Henri Blocher. Apollos. 158 pages. £10.99
ISBN 0 85111 514 4
Henri Blocher is well-known as a sensitive and incisive theologian, with a special interest in the issues raised by the earlier chapters of Genesis. In this new work, he explores a dark and complex subject, and as his subtitle suggests, makes no claim to resolve all its difficulties. He does claim to shed light on the matter, however, and the book has many enlightening comments and interpretations.
The core of the work is a detailed exposition of two essential passages of Scripture: the Eden story and Romans 5. His treatment of the former passage is full of insight. In the face of much commentary which would argue otherwise, Blocher shows that original sin cannot be merely an idea of an 'omni-temporal myth' (p.56). The doctrine has no substance if it does not refer to a real historical happening. Blocher also cuts through quite a lot of fudge about the possibility or potentiality of sin in our first parents.
He does not argue for the impossibility of sin, yet shows that arguing for a fatal flaw in human nature runs counter to the biblical picture of sin as 'radical strangeness'. His exegesis here is surefooted and refreshingly clear. The interpretation of Romans I found less satisfying, partly because the categories are more complex (the difference, for example, between originated original sin, and originating original sin), and partly because the focus is on polarised positions in interpretation of Scripture.
There are two fascinating chapters on 'original sin as a key to human experience' and 'original sin as propagated and broken', which look at the universality of sin, and considers issues of the transmission of original sin, and responsibility for it. Blocher points out that the Pelagian position, which effectively denies original sin (and into which perhaps a majority of liberal-minded Christians have drifted), is the most illiberal of all: on this account, the disparity between human potential and achievement is unbearable, and as Blocher writes: 'Absolute freedom entails absolute condemnation' (p.102). In the second of these two chapters, Blocher is willing to consider - among a great many other models - a genetic model of transmission of original sin, though not an actual genetic transmission (p.125-6). Just these examples among many that could be cited, reveal his willingness to be original in relation to one of the oldest and most discussed of theological problems.
In parts of the book, the argument is dense and sometimes laborious. Blocher gives no absolute history of the doctrine, but his bibliography and discussion are full and fully referenced. There are author, Scripture and subject indexes to guide the reader who is using the book as a resource. Overall, this is not a book for the fainthearted or the light reader, but it will stimulate and stretch the mind of anyone who is looking for a reliable guide to the doctrine of original sin.
Paul Cavill
School of English Studies,
University of Nottingham
