Defending Sin: A Response to the Challenges of Evolution and the Natural Sciences

The conflict between the natural sciences and Christian theology has been going on for centuries. Recent advances in the fields of evolutionary biology, behavioral genetics, and neuroscience have intensified this conflict, particularly in relation to origins, the fall, and sin. These debates are crucial to our understanding of human sinfulness and necessarily involve the doctrine of salvation. Theistic evolutionists have labored hard to resolve these tensions between science and faith, but Hans Madueme argues that the majority of their proposals do injustice both to biblical teaching and to long-standing doctrines held by the mainstream Christian tradition.

In this major contribution to the field of science and religion, Madueme demonstrates that the classical notion of sin reflected in Scripture, the creeds, and tradition offers the most compelling and theologically coherent account of the human condition. He answers pressing challenges from the physical sciences on both methodological and substantive levels. Scholars, pastors, students, and interested lay readers will profit from interacting with the arguments presented here.

368 pages.

Setting the Stage: Changing Conceptions of Sin
Part 1: Authority
1. Science, Theology, and Biblical Authority
2. Biblical Realism: A Dogmatic Proposal
Part 2: Protology
3. Early Genesis and Extrabiblical Knowledge
4. The Unity of the Human Race
5. The Doctrine of Original Goodness
Part 3: Hamartiology
6. The Fall of Adam and Eve
7. Original Sin and the Biological Problem
8. Souls and the Nature of Sin
Conclusion: Science and the Evangelical Dogmatics of Sin
Indexes