Reformed Theology and Evolutionary Theory: A Critical Review

Meer, Jitse van der; Bekkum, Koert van

doi:10.56315/pscf12-20vandermeer

PSCF

2020

DOI: 10.56315/pscf12-20vandermeer

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Reformed Theology and Evolutionary Theory: A Critical Review

Jitse van der Meer¹,

Koert van Bekkum²

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2022

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“…Yet the Amsterdam professor Gijsbert van den Brink, for instance, exploits this motif to portray Adam as a Neolithic farmer (Van den Brink 2020; cf. Van der Meer and Van Bekkum 2020). Anyone who realizes how important these kinds of elements are in the story, that it is told in a manner recognizable to Israel and also to create a contrast with Egyptian and Mesopotamian irrigation agriculture, cannot help but conclude that it is virtually impossible to separate loose elements from it.…”

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William Lane Craig, In Quest of the Historical Adam: A Biblical and Scientific Exploration

Bekkum

2022

Philos. Reformata

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The American philosopher William Lane Craig has published an impressive book on the quest among Evangelicals taking science seriously for Adam as a historical figure. Not only is Craig famous for reviving the cosmological argument for God, but he is also a theologian who defended a dissertation under guidance of Wolfhart Pannenberg on the resurrection of Jesus. Thus being acquainted with the interface of the study of ancient texts, historical studies, and argumentation, he seems the scholar par excellence to master the complex fields of the study of Genesis 1-11 and the ancient Near East, Paul's theological view of Adam in Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15, the archaeology of hominids, paleoneurology, and genetics, while also saying meaningful things about the possible connection between them.Craig indeed has succeeded in presenting the reader with a well-written book with a clear line of argument and a distinct outcome: Adam and Eve were historical individuals who probably can be identified as the first of the so-called Homo heidelbergensis, a hominid evolving some 750,000 years ago, preceding Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.Craig comes at this result in four steps. An introductory chapter shows what is at stake in the Christian faith regarding the question of whether Adam was historical or not. A subsequent part of the book explores to what extent there are historical claims in Genesis 1-11 and in what language and genre those claims are being made. Using a term from Danish Assyriologist Thorkild Jacobsen, Craig characterizes these biblical chapters as mytho-history: they tell a historical story, but in the garb of language and imagery of a primeval age, as was common in the ancient Near East, albeit with unique theological emphases. This picture is confirmed in the New Testament, in which both Jesus and Paul assume the existence of a historical Adam and the parallel between Adam and Christ is shown to be vital for humanity's reconciliation with God.

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William Lane Craig, In Quest of the Historical Adam: A Biblical and Scientific Exploration

Bekkum

2022

Philos. Reformata

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Reformed Theology and Evolutionary Theory: A Critical Review

Cited by 1 publication

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William Lane Craig, In Quest of the Historical Adam: A Biblical and Scientific Exploration

William Lane Craig, In Quest of the Historical Adam: A Biblical and Scientific Exploration

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