Notes on a Call

I have the great fortune to be a member of a cohort of pastors who are interested in the intersection and harmony of Christian faith with the natural sciences . I’ll report on the functions of the cohort in future posts but todays post will be reserved for some preliminary notes I jotted down during a group conference call with Dr. Peter Enns a Biblical scholar and author. 

Dr. Enns recently wrote The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say About Human Origins. During the call Dr. Enns spoke about the book and focused particularly on Paul’s treatment of the Adam story and how it relates to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  I look forward to the book and plan to read it. The notes below are raw without comment and were taken as I listened while commuting from work via light rail and bus so they are fragmented.  I cannot be certain that I have faithfully captured the sentiment of the book or Dr. Enn’s presentation completely. I’ll be able to correct any mistakes I’ve made as I listen back to the call and read the book. 

Dr. Enns has a website at http://peterennsonline.com/ where more information about his work can be found.

Notes from the call –

Evolution can be accepted as a fact. Not to say anything about specific mechanisms or explaining the science at all but that it is the accepted paradigm of how life came to be as it is today.

Because of this acceptance it cannot and must not be assumed that the account in Genesis is a literal outline of how creation took place.

Therefore we must look at the text of Genesis and ask what it is about. Looking at Genesis as an Ancient text, as a second temple text, and from the perspective of Paul is useful for unterstanding.

Funny notion from Dr. Enns  - If Adam would have minded his own business and stayed in genesis we wouldn’t have any of the tensions we have with evolution.

The OT is largely concerned with Israel. The story of Adam is an outline of the recurring history of Israel.  Adam and Israel can be read in parallel with the following sequence - Given a lush land, given law, law is broken, kicked out of the lush land

Eastern orthodox view is that Adam story is that of immaturity that never grows into maturity. Adam story is wisdom literature a la the proverbs.

God wants us to have wisdom and gives it to us in his way. Adam and eve is a story of how Israel did not seek wisdom wisely and suffered the consequences.

Paul Adam and Jesus-

Paul probably didn’t think in terms of the existence of North America or outer space.

Therefore Paul’s antiquity limits and colors how he understands the Adam story.

Paul’s perspective is unique but he is not the first ancient Jew to think about Adam.

The ambiguities in the Adam text give credit to the other ancient takes on it.

Paul doesn’t authoritatively interpret Adam but gives his take on Adam.

Paul’s interpretations of the OT are not always at face value and he uses creative license.

He does this because he is writing in the context of what Jesus did on the cross.

Paul persecuted Christians because he wholly thought that you had to be a Jew to have salvation because the Jews had the law. When he saw Jesus as messiah and that God had to raise him from the dead Paul recognized salvation as more than from the law but from death itself. We therefore have passages like all (he suggests they could read both-Jew and gentile) have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Abraham and more so Adam are brought into his argument because Paul was making sure to show that sin and therefore the need for salvation is universal.

The evolution of Adam is the book he wrote.

Funny “I'll sign your kindle if you send it to me.”

The way we think of death is a big theological conundrum.

In evolution death is not the enemy but rather the engine of creation.

Our modern myths are a collection of understandings that help us interpret reality. In that sense evolution is a modern day myth.

How does this relate to new heaven and earth a la revelation. Just because death is inevitable within an evolutionary context that doesn't require for a time when there will be no death.

End of Notes

There was a lot of thought provoking material packed into the hour long talk. I look forward to delving more into the book when I get it.