Benjamin Petroelje’s essay explores an alternative “plight” to the Adam thread woven throughout the Bible. Rather than focusing on sin, death and guilt, Petroelje focuses on the themes of unity and duality. Using Plato as a conversation partner, Petroelje offers a fresh reading of Genesis and Ephesians, and argues that Adam’s duality as male and female represents a tension that is resolved in the unity of Christ and the Church.
Michael LeFebvre’s essay explores the theme of monarchy in Genesis 1-2, in light of the ANE context. LeFebvre argues that the early chapters of Genesis present Adam as a king, and that these chapters function more as an etiology of Adamic kingship, rather than as an explanation of Adam’s biological origins.
Jonathan Huggins’ essay examines the writings of N. T. Wright with a view to discerning how Wright interprets the person of Adam. Drawing upon Wright’s commentaries, interviews, and monographs, Huggins’ argues that Wright does indeed affirm the existence of an historical Adam, even if Wright is not convinced that Adam was the sole progenitor of the human race.
Ryan Davidson offers a close reading of the Apostolic Fathers, with particular attention to how these authors viewed the person of Adam. Davidson concludes that that Apostolic Fathers assumed the historicity of Adam as a framework for all their discussions of Adam.
This issue concludes with Zachary Wagner’s exploration of ways in which the Christian gospel may be particularly well-equipped to speak into a worldview shaped by belief in evolution.
Douglas Estes turns our attention to the near-future and critiques transhumanist technological optimism by reminding us of the devastating effects of sin, and the impotence of technological solutions to address this fundamental human problem.
Ryan Davidson examines aspects of Herman Bavinck’s Christology as they relate to the catholic creeds and Reformed confessions, and also to the Modern Christologies of his near-contemporaries.
Jeremy Mann turns to a significant theological contemporary and draws lessons John Milbank’s approach to the doctrine of creation in relation to evolutionary theory, in order to help pastors avoid the pitfalls of talking foolishly about evolution.
Gerald Hiestand begins Issue 6.1 by pointing us to the rich resources of St Irenaeus of Lyon’s doctrine of creation to help the Church affirm the creaturely goodness of the material world.
Nathan Barczi draws creatively on Karl Barth and Jeremy Begbie’s reflections on the music of Mozart to ask how this might shed light on the problem of non-human suffering before the Fall.
Scott Hafemann concludes the volume on a strongly pastoral note, offering a moving and challenging response to the Tohoku Tsunami-Fukushima Devastation of 2011, by means of a theological reading of Jesus’ teaching in Luke 13:1-5.
Gray Sutanto engages in some intellectual archaeology to demonstrate commonalities between a recent non-historical approach to the Fall and that of Friederich Schleiermacher.
Gerald Hiestand brings both Irenaeus and Augustine into conversation with evolutionary theory to explore the potential resources each pre-modern bishop offers in engaging a post-Darwinian world.
Nathan Chang calls for clarity in thinking about human dignity, which on a properly theological account also includes a recognition of creaturely humility.
Joel Lawrence engages Yuval Noah Harari’s Homo Deus to sound a theological alarm over the technologically driven “new human agenda” but also, more urgently for this journal’s readership, over the (lack of ) readiness of the contemporary evangelical churches to address faithfully the near-future of humanity.
Matthew O’Reilly orients us to the Bible by providing a critical analysis of Gerd Thiessen’s proposed “Darwinian Hermeneutic” for reading Scripture.
Joseph Sherrard articulates a biblical doctrine of the mortification of sin that challenges and corrects the distortions of an exclusively therapeutic gospel.
Jim Samra brings 2 Corinthians 3-5 to bear on the insights of behavioral science to enable a more theological evaluation of their limitations in light of people’s need for divinely accomplished rebirth and maturation.
Michael LeFebvre offers a careful and hermeneutically aware reading of the story of Abigail and Nabal (1 Sam. 25) to mine it for insights into mental healthcare.
By means of a rich exposition of Jacques Ellul’s thinking about ‘technique’, Joel Lawrence considers how Ellul can help Christians to avoid conforming to the world, and instead to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
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ED GERBER
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