ADAM, THE FALL AND ORIGINAL SIN
Theological, Biblical and Scientific
Perspectives.
Editors H. Madueme and M. Reeves
Baker Academic. 339 pages. £17.82
ISBN 978 0 801 029 928
This is a valuable book and I would hope it appears on the reading list of Bible scholars. It consists of a series of essays by scholars of different backgrounds. The editors give their aim as: ‘[W]e have sought to demonstrate that a historical Adam and original sin are essential, irremovable, relevant and credible elements of the Christian faith’. This is an aim which is well achieved.
They have deliberately brought together writers from a range of traditions and theological backgrounds who together give strength to this project. There is at least one ‘theistic evolutionist’, for example, among them and most readers will find comments with which they disagree in some other writers. However, the unity in this project is well established and provides a forceful challenge to the increasing number of Bible scholars who are dismissive of the thesis that the Bible is recording historical events and fundamental truths in the early chapters of Genesis.
