Doing without Adam and Eve: Sociobiology and Original Sin

by Patricia A. Williams

Overview

A new examination of the doctrine of original sinIn this provocative new addition to the acclaimed series, Patricia Williams assays the doctrine of original sin with a scientific lens and, based on sociobiology, offers an alternative Christian account of human nature's foibles and future.

Focusing on the Genesis 2 and 3 account Williams shows how its "historical" interpretation in early Christianity not only misread the text but derived an idea of being human profoundly at odds with experience and contemporary science.

Williams's work, frank in its assessment of traditional misunderstandings, challenges theologians and all Christians to reassess the roots and branches of this linchpin doctrine.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780800632854
Publisher:	1517 Media
Publication date:	06/19/2001
Series:	Theology and the Sciences
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Patricia A. Williams taught philosophy at Virginia State University, has authored many scholarly articles on the philosophy of biology, and is co-editor of Evolution and Human Values (1995). She was recently elected a fellow of the Jesus Seminar.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Part One: The Demise of Adam and Eve

1. Science, Scripture, and Doctrine

-Science and Scripture

-Central Scriptural Doctrines

-Central Theological Doctrines

-Controversial Doctrines

2. Tests of Truth

-The Interpreter and Canalization

-The Coherence Test

-The Correspondence Test

-The Consilience Test

3. The Fall

-The Early Church

-Harold Bloom

-A Gnostic Christian

-Augustine

4. Original Sin

-Calvin and Protestantism

-The Canalization of Evil

-Aquinas and Catholicism

-Athanasius and Orthodoxy

5. The Demise of Adam and Eve

-Coherence and Genesis 1-3

-Correspondence and Genesis 1-9

-Consilience in Science

-The Demise of Adam and Eve

6. Scripture and Truth

-Coherence and the Torah

-Symbolic Truth in Genesis 2 and 3

-Correspondence and the Gospels

-The Authority of Scripture

Part Two: The Unification of Science and Christianity

7. The Theory of Evolution

-Coherence and Natural Selection

-Correspondence and Speciation

-Consilience and Human Evolution

-Canalization and Resistance

8. The Sociobiological Consilience

-The Evolution of Altruism

-Altruism's Legacy

-Reciprocity

-Human Sociality

9. Original Sin and Sociobiology

-Freedom

-Sin

-Love

-Punishment

10. The Problem of Evil

-A Developing Universe

-Locating Ourselves

-Locating Evil

-Solving the Problem

11. The Atonement

-Four Difficulties

-Jesus and Sin

-Suffering and Death

-Atonement Now

Conclusion

Glossary

References

Index