What if the biblical creation account is true, with the origins of Adam and Eve taking place alongside evolution? Building on well-established but overlooked science, S. Joshua Swamidass explains how it's possible for Adam and Eve to be rightly identified as the ancestors of everyone, opening up new possibilities for understanding Adam and Eve consistent both with current scientific consensus and with traditional readings of Scripture.
Can Christianity and evolution coexist? Traditional Christian teaching presents Jesus as reversing the effects of the fall of Adam. But an evolutionary view of human origins doesn't allow for a literal Adam, making evolution seemingly incompatible with what Genesis and the apostle Paul say about him. For Christians who both accept evolution and want to take the Bible seriously, this can present a faith-shaking tension. Popular Old Testament scholar Peter Enns offers a way forward by explaining how this tension is caused not by the discoveries of science but by false expectations about the biblical texts. In this 10th anniversary edition, Enns updates readers on developments in the historical Adam debate, helping them reconcile Genesis and Paul with current views on evolution and human origins. This edition includes an afterword that explains Enns's own theological evolution since the first edition released.
A lively and entertaining account of the broad panorama of human sexual behaviour which reveals our actions to be an inextricable mixture of nature and nurture - a combination of innate actions evolved over the millenia, overlain by more recent cultural constraints imposed by civilization.
Genomic science indicates that humans descend not from an individual pair but from a large population. What does this mean for the basic claim of many Christians: that humans descend from Adam and Eve? Leading evangelical geneticist Dennis Venema and popular New Testament scholar Scot McKnight combine their expertise to offer informed guidance and answers to questions pertaining to evolution, genomic science, and the historical Adam. Some of the questions they explore include: - Is there credible evidence for evolution? - Do we descend from a population or are we the offspring of Adam and Eve? - Does taking the Bible seriously mean rejecting recent genomic science? - How do Genesis's creation stories reflect their ancient Near Eastern context, and how did Judaism understand the Adam and Eve of Genesis? - Doesn't Paul's use of Adam in the New Testament prove that Adam was a historical individual? The authors address up-to-date genomics data with expert commentary from both genetic and theological perspectives, showing that genome research and Scripture are not irreconcilable. Foreword by Tremper Longman III and afterword by Daniel Harrell.
Were the biblical Adam and Eve historical figures, or are the early events described in Genesis primarily symbolic in nature? Behind the debate of a historical Adam is the age-old debate about evolution and the agreement between Scripture and science. With an introduction that outlines the history and main points of every viewpoint from Darwinism to Young Earth Creationism, this book then clearly outlines four primary views on Adam held by evangelical Christians. Contributors include Denis O. Lamoureux, John H. Walton, C. John Collins, and William Barrick. Each focuses his essay on answering the following questions: What is the biblical case for your viewpoint, and how do you reconcile it both with modern science and with passages and potential interpretations that seem to counter it? In what ways is your view more theologically consistent and coherent than other views? What are the implications of your view for the spiritual life and public witness of the church and individual believers, and how is your view a healthier alternative for both? This book allows each contributor to not only present the case for his view, but also to critique and respond to the critiques of the other contributors, allowing you to compare their beliefs in an open forum setting to see where they overlap and where they differ. Concluding reflections by pastor-scholars Gregory A. Boyd and Philip Graham Ryken highlight the significance of the topic in the faith of everyday believers. The Counterpoints series presents a comparison and critique of scholarly views on topics important to Christians that are both fair-minded and respectful of the biblical text. Each volume is a one-stop reference that allows readers to evaluate the different positions on a specific issue and form their own, educated opinion.
For all the discussion in the media about creationism and 'Intelligent Design', virtually nothing has been said about the evidence in question - the evidence for evolution by natural selection. Yet, as this succinct and important book shows, that evidence is vast, varied, and magnificent, and drawn from many disparate fields of science. The very latest research is uncovering a stream of evidence revealing evolution in action - from the actual observation of a species splitting into two, to new fossil discoveries, to the deciphering of the evidence stored in our genome. Why Evolution is True weaves together the many threads of modern work in genetics, palaeontology, geology, molecular biology, anatomy, and development to demonstrate the 'indelible stamp' of the processes first proposed by Darwin. It is a crisp, lucid, and accessible statement that will leave no one with an open mind in any doubt about the truth of evolution.
What if reading Genesis 2–3 in its ancient Near Eastern context shows that the creation account makes no claims regarding Adam and Eve's material origins? John Walton's groundbreaking insights into this text create space for a faithful reading of Scripture along with full engagement with science, creating a new way forward in the human origins debate.
"We need a real Adam and Eve if we are to make sense of the Bible and of life," argues C. John Collins. Examining the biblical storyline as the worldview story of the people of God, Collins shows how that story presupposes a real Adam and Eve and how the modern experience of life points to the same conclusion. Applying well-informed critical thinking to common theological and scientific questions, Collins asserts the importance of a real man at the beginning in God's plan for creation, a plan that includes "redemption" for all people since sin entered the world. Did Adam and Eve Really Exist? addresses both biblical and Jewish texts and contains extensive appendices to examine how the material in Genesis relates to similar material from Mesopotamian myths. Collins's detailed analysis of the relevant texts will instill confidence in readers that the traditional Christian story equips them better than any alternatives to engage the life that they actually encounter in the modern world.
Over two dozen Christian leaders describe how they changed their minds about evolution Perhaps no topic appears as potentially threatening to evangelicals as evolution. The very idea seems to exclude God from the creation the book of Genesis celebrates. Yet many evangelicals have come to accept the conclusions of science while still holding to a vigorous belief in God and the Bible. How did they make this journey? How did they come to embrace both evolution and faith? Here are stories from a community of people who love Jesus and honor the authority of the Bible, but who also agree with what science says about the cosmos, our planet and the life that so abundantly fills it. Among the contributors are Scientists such as: Francis Collins Deborah Haarsma Denis Lamoureux Theologians and philosophers such as: James K. A. Smith Amos Yong Oliver Crisp Biblical scholars such as: N. T. Wright Scot McKnight Tremper Longman III Pastors such as: John Ortberg Ken Fong Laura Truax
This book argues in favor of Adam and Eve as two real historical persons, and also in favor of accepting evolution as one of the natural means that God uses to guide the unfolding of His Creation. Adam and Eve were created by God, miraculously, and they became the first parents of the entire human race. But God used evolution, under His providence, to prepare the form of the human body. Then God miraculously created Adam and Eve as the first two true human persons, and He gave them immortal souls with free will and reason.Some Christians reject evolution and other scientific theories, adhering instead to an entirely literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis. Others reject the historicity of Genesis, as if it were merely a collection of fictional teaching stories. When faith and science disagree, how should faithful Christians respond? We cannot reject the truths of our faith. But neither should we reject the gift of reason and the insights of modern science. Therefore, this book proposes that both the story of Adam and Eve, and the theory of evolution are essentially true, when properly understood.The early chapters of Genesis contain some literal historical elements along with many figurative elements. Adam and Eve were two literal historical persons. They each fell from grace by committing the first sins of the human race: original sin. But other elements of their story are figurative, including a forbidden fruit and a talking serpent. And the seven days of Creation are also figurative, not literal.The theory of evolution, in its main tenets, is compatible with this approach to the Bible, which sees both literal and figurative elements woven together in a single tapestry of truth. God created the universe, and He may well have done so in the manner described by science. God chose to create life on Earth, but that life developed and progressed largely as the theory of evolution explains. In addition, God's Providence has always guided Creation as a whole, and particularly life on Earth. He who created all things also created the principles of nature. God gave the principles of nature the role of governing the development of the universe as well as the development of life on Earth. For such is His plan for His Creation. Science has the role of discovering the inherent principles of all natural things. But science must not speak or act as if it were the judge over Faith.The theory of evolution fails on a few points. Evolution ignores the role of God in creating the first life on Earth, in governing the development of living things, and in choosing to create the human race. The idea that one species can evolve into another species is well proven; but the claim that life "evolved" from non-living chemicals is not. I believe that God intervened directly to create the first single-cell organisms on Earth. Subsequently, evolution, under the providence of God, developed that life, over the course of billions of years, into a vast array of plants and animals.But evolution eventually reached a "glass ceiling," after the development of the higher forms of animal life. For no natural principle is able to evolve or create an immortal soul with free will and the ability to reason abstractly. And so God intervened miraculously to create the first two human persons, Adam and Eve. After they fell from grace, these two became the parents of the whole human race. All human persons on Earth are descended from Adam and Eve.
