George Andrews wrote:
>
> George Murphy wrote:
>
> > The idea "that Christ had to pay the penalty for sin" is one of at least a dozen
> > "theories of the atonement" which have been held within Christianity. This particular
> > one has been very influential in the western church but no one theory has dogmatic
> > status. Most of them have been held by Christians who assumed Genesis 3 to be an
> > historical account of what happened with the first humans, but could also be held with
> > small variations by those who don't.
> > There are a number of ways of understanding the work of Christ & while some of
> > them may be commonly expressed in terms of a literal interpretation of Genesis 3, they
> > are not really dependent upon that. So one can't start from what Christ did & argue
> > back unambiguously to a knowledge of how sin originated.
> > Shalom,
> > George
>
> This came up (in writing) in a recent Christian Faculty lunch at William and Mary just last week. A
> sermon by Dr. James Kennedy (Jan. 1983) was handed out in which, among other claims, he proclaims
> that "...it is well known that evolution makes the entire mission of Jesus Christ superfluous;" and
> again "If evolution is true then that whole idea of redemption is false and Christ came for naught;
> and Christianity is therefore, untrue." These are serious charges.
>
> Who are the theologians who are working out the theological ramifications of theistic evolution? (I
> guess I should visit George's web site ... ok, I will :-) )
I love the "It is well known ..." technique of intellectual intimidation. It's
much easier to make boomy global claims than to do the nitty-gritty theological work.
A few worthwhile books addressing the topic (besides my own out-of-print _The
Trademark of God_, which I _think_ is worthwhile)
Denis Edwards, _The God of Evolution_ (Paulist)
Philip Hefner, _The Human Factor_ (Fortress)
Karl Schmitz-Moormann and James F. Salmon, _Theology of Creation in an
Evolutionary World_ (Pilgrim)
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
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