Benjamin Espinoza argues for the importance of engaging professionals working in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields within the life of the church.
Matthew Mason explores what nature and Scripture reveal about the reality and meaning of the twofold form of our humanity as male and female.
Jeremy Mann offers a charitable critique of Dillon Thornton’s essay “Consecrated Creation” from BET Volume 4.1.
Jeremy Mann unweaves the tapestry of a sacramental ontology to argue for the doctrinal and pastoral advantages of a Calvinist account of creation.
Jarrod Longbons offers an anti-modern theological gift to ecology, drawing on a Radical Orthodoxy-inflected theological account of nature.
Matt Ward’s essay explores the role that Adam has played in the Christian liturgical tradition. Ward survey a broad sweep of the Christian tradition, demonstrating that the Augustinian account of Adam, and its corresponding account of original sin, is woven intricately throughout the liturgical tradition.
my essay explores what resources Irenaeus, contrasted with Augustine, may offer Christian theologians who are sympathetic to evolutionary accounts of human origins. The essay examines Irenaeus’ theme of maturation and growth, as well as Irenaeus’ view of the incarnation. Both aspects of Irenaeus’ thought, while not erasing the tension between Christian theology and evolutionary science, offer fresh ways of thinking about Adam, the fall, and original sin.
John Yates’ essay offers us a close reading of 1 Corinthians 15, and argues that Paul assumes Adam’s fall, focusing on Adam as an image of sin and death contra Christ, who is the image of life.
Joel Willitts, in his essay, offers Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a model for how to think about Adam in a post-Darwinian world. For Willitts, following Bonhoeffer, the question of Adam’s historicity (however important) must not distract us from the theological importance of Adam as presented by Scripture.
Mickey Klink invites us to reflect on the role Adam plays in the gospel of John. Klink challenges the idea that “Second Adam” Christology can only be found in Paul, and, in an insightful reading of the whole gospel, shows the many ways that John presents Jesus as the Second Adam.
Josh Philpot’s essay explores the role of Adam as a type of Christ. Philpot first offers a framework for understanding the historicity of types, and then applies this framework to Adam. Philpot concludes that Adam is best understood as an historical person.
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.
ARTICLE: Life Is Hard, Be Humble: Thomas Aquinas on Humility
NATHAN BARCZI
PODCAST: Becoming a Pastor Theologian
STEPHEN CAMPBELL
ARTICLE: Christians and the Virtues
BENJAMIN BURKHOLDER
NEWS: Announcing Two New Learning Cohorts
CPT NEWS UPDATE
