Before the seventh day of creation: Sin and salvation in evolutionary perspective

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Sin and salvation in the Old Testament

Quite distinct from the traditional view of the Western Church, with its emphasis on the fallen state of humankind, the OT presents us with an underlying assumption of well-being (Räisänen 2010:134). Death is generally not understood to have resulted from sin,38 and it is accepted with some equanimity that life comes to an end (even though the premature end of life may call forth protest) (Goldingay 2006:631). The OT is characterised by a general enthusiasm about life, in which grey hair is seen as a crown and the faithful may expect that their flame will not burn out before its time (Goldingay 2006:631).
The OT knows sin not as a state of being but as a “human deviation from the expressed will and desire of God” (Cover 1992:31). Such transgressions could disturb the fundamental state of well-being, but the OT proclaims a merciful God ( יהוה חנון ורחום ), and provided means through which the sinner could return to a state of communion with God through expiatory measures (Räisänen 2010:134). We may 37contemplate, in this regard, the touching expression of hope based on the character of Yahweh.

Sin and salvation in Second Temple Judaism (200 B.C.E. – 200 C.E.)

Literary activity and theological reflection flowered during the Second Temple period. While formative Judaism “inherited from the biblical tradition a relatively optimistic view of the human condition in God’s world” (Räisänen 2010:135), the collective difficulties experienced during the Greek and Roman periods resulted in an increased interest in the origin of sin and evil. It is during this time period that the idea of some opposing supernatural power, such as a “primordial act of rebellion in a superhuman realm” (Räisänen 2010:137), gains popularity in this regard. Whereas, in the OT, even evil things are thought to originate from Yahweh, Satan now becomes a major adversary of God, with Belial as “the master of the spirits of error; the present age is under his control” (Räisänen 2010:137; cf. T. 12 Patr.).
Others, however, turned to the primeval narrative of the first humans to find an explanation to the problem of evil. In view of the fact that the Eden narrative receives no reinterpretation – or even retellings – in the OT, the significant amount of interpretive attention that it receives in Second Temple Judaism is striking, and shows that Paul’s interpretation of the sin of Adam forms part of a larger trend at the time. The treatment of the Eden narrative during the 400 years of the SecondTemple period displays both development and diversity in the interpretative tradition.
The earlier literature from this period (Sir, Wis, Jub., Dead Sea Scrolls) portray Adam as a hero and wise man. He is a model of holiness, the first patriarch of the Jewish people, and in Jubilees even performs priestly duties before leaving (not being driven from) the Garden. These early sources see Adam neither as the father of sin nor as the origin of death (Toews 2013:36-37).51

Sin and salvation in the New Testament

The NT tradition stands in continuity with both the OT and the Second Temple period, seeing sin as an act or stance that is opposed to God, and including in such offenses acts of injustice committed against fellow humans (Sanders 1992:40). Sanders distinguishes three partially overlapping views of sin and sinners, namely, (i) individual, wrong acts; (ii) persons who sin routinely, having no regard for the will of God; and (iii) a “power” or “force” opposed to God that may capture humans and lead them into sin (Sanders 1992:40). We will provide a brief overview of the first two aspects, followed by the third under its own heading (2.4.1).
The early Jesus Movement continued the relatively optimistic view regarding the moral nature of human beings that is found in the OT, and that continued into formative Judaism (Räisänen 2010:139).

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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Preliminary remarks
1.2 Research problem
1.3 Hypothesis
1.4 Research method
1.5 Expected results
CHAPTER TWO: OF EDEN: RECLAIMING A STORY GONE WRONG
2.1 Reading again
2.1.1 Reading in context
2.1.2 The Eden narrative at a glance: A few notes on structure
2.1.3 Prominent themes in the Eden narrative
The garden
The tree of knowledge and the tree of life
The serpen
The woman
Boundaries
Wisdom
2.1.4 Concluding our literary approach
2.2 The Eden narrative: A story of sin?
2.3 Conclusion
CHAPTER THREE: THE STORY OF SIN AND SALVATION IN BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE
3.1 Sin and salvation in the Old Testament
3.2 Sin and salvation in Second Temple Judaism (200 B.C.E. – 200 C.E.) The “yetser” ( 52 (יצר
3.3 Sin and salvation in the New Testament
3.3.1 The story of sin in the Jesus Movement: Paul the follower of Jesus
3.4 Sin as debt and virtue as merit
3.5 Conclusion
CHAPTER FOUR: METAPHYSICAL STORIES? THE STORY OF SIN AND SALVATION IN THE THEOLOGICAL TRADITION
4.1 Sin and salvation in formative Christianity
4.1.1 The story of original sin in the Greek Church Fathers (ca. 150-400 C.E.)
4.1.2 The story of original sin in the Latin Church Fathers prior to Augustine (c 200-400 C.E.)
Tertullian (ca. 155-220 C.E.)
Cyprian (b. 200-210; d. 258 C.E.)
Ambrose (339-97 C.E.)
Ambrosiaster
4.2 Nature vs. grace, Pelagius vs. Augustine, and the cul-de-sac of binary oppositions
4.2.1 Pelagius on grace and the freedom of the will
4.2.2 Augustine’s theology of original sin (354-430 C.E.)
An evaluation of Augustine’s doctrine of original sin
4.2.3 Attempting integration, achieving compromise: Semi-Pelagianism
4.3 Sin and salvation in scholastic thought
4.3.1 Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033-1109)
4.3.2 Peter Abelard (1079-1142)
4.3.3 Thomas Aquinas (1227-1274
4.3.4 The Scholastics in summary
4.4 In protest: Sin and salvation in Reformational thought
4.4.1 Socinianism
4.4.2 Arminianism
4.5 More recent views of sin and redemption
4.5.1 The anthropocentrist approach of Schleiermacher (1768-1834)
4.5.2 The teleological approach of Hegel (1770-1831)
4.6 Metaphysical stories and their limitations
CHAPTER FIVE: RICHARD KEARNEY AND THE POWERLESS POSSIBLE
5.1 The life and times of Richard Kearney
5.2 Kearney on imagination
5.2.1 The complex genealogy of imagination in the Western tradition
5.2.2 A hermeneutic retrieval of imagination
5.2.3 An ethical imagination
5.2.4 A poetical imagination
5.2.5 An ethical-poetical imagination: Moving beyond the labyrinth
The hermeneutic, historical, and narrative tasks
5.3 Kearney’s diacritical hermeneutics
5.4 Kearney’s phenomenology of the Other
5.4.1 Persona: Figure of the Other
5.4.2 Persona as eschaton
5.4.3 Beyond fusion
5.4.4 Persona as chiasm
5.4.5 Persona as prosopon
5.5 Post-metaphysical God-talk: Kearney’s GodWho May Be
5.6 After unbelief: Anatheism and radical religious hospitality
5.7 Conclusion
CHAPTER SIX: NEW STORIES? SIN AND REDEMPTION RE-IMAGINED
6.1 Imagining sin and redemption: A third way?
6.2 Interpreting Messiah Jesus eschatologically: The resurrection as hermeneutical key for the incarnation and the cross
6.2.1 Between incarnation Christology and cross Christology: Resurrection
6.3 Collective stories: Sin and salvation beyond the individual
6.4 Christ the Messiah, capturing the imagination
6.4.1 Jesus or Christ: From above or from below?
6.4.2 The exemplarist theory of atonement: A critical engagement
The faithfulness of Messiah Jesus: A yetser inclined to higher will
Creative suffering and the past in the present: The contribution of Paul S. Fiddes in dialogue with Kearney
6.4.3 A transfiguring God: The luring of the Spirit
6.5 A vulnerable God, a powerless possible, an uncertain outcome
6.6 Before the seventh day of creation: Sin and salvation in evolutionary perspective
6.7 Conclusion
CHAPTER SEVEN: OF NAZARETH: STORIES THAT CAPTURE THE IMAGINATION
CHAPTER EIGHT: CONCLUSION – TOWARD A POST-METAPHYSICAL
UNDERSTANDING OF SIN AND SALVATION