In 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.
Table of Contents
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