As Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) unpacks the tension between the present and future anthropologies set forth by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, some aspects of his theological anthropology emerge. Zwingli clearly differentiates between the body and the soul, recognizing that while the two elements are meant to be united, they will be separated between the time…

In the age of genomes, new information is reshaping our understanding of life on Earth. This information cannot be ignored, and questions are rising in the Church. How much does evolution press on theology? Was Adam a real person from whom all mankind descends? In Adam and the Genome, the scientist Dennis Venema explains our…

Adam and the Genome reviews selected highlights in the scholarly discussion about human evolution and Scripture. In what follows I focus on Venema’s approach to arguing support for evolution, and McKnight’s claims about a literary vs. historical Adam. Challenges with Venema’s Method The first chapter emphasizes predictive power and independent lines of evidence as strategies for…

In Adam and the Genome, my friend Scot McKnight presents his biblically rooted case for claiming that the term historical Adam is really about a literary or archetypal Adam. It is the argument of Chapters 5-8. To drive the point home the term historical is placed in quotes (“historical”) as he introduces the topic (p….

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you know that evangelicals are embroiled in a lively debate about Adam and Eve. On one side are those who insist that Adam and Eve were the first and sole progenitors of the entire human race. The other side cautions against reading too much dogma into Genesis 2-3;…

William Perkins (1558–1602) was an English Puritan theologian who was well known for his exposition of Calvinist teachings and became one of the first English Reformed theologians to achieve international recognition. Reflecting, here, on the fall, he asserts that the first sin was not an isolated act, but rather the culmination of a complex series…

Martin Luther looks forward from Adam to resurrection and Consummation (Genesis 2:21-22) But the sleep of Adam—so sound that he was not aware of what was being done to him—is a picture, as it were, of the transformation which would have taken place in the state of innocence. The righteous nature would have experienced no death but…