Adam and the Scientists - Scot McKnight

“At the heart of theological education, whether in a church or a Christian school and among some Christians teaching in public schools, is sensitivity to the context of scientific claims. All scientific and historical claims speak out of and into a specific context, and this applies both to the grand theories in science (like biological evolution) and to theological claims about Adam, Eve, sin and salvation. Paul talked about Adam in a way that made eminent sense to his Jewish and Roman contemporaries and the Book of Genesis made sense in the Ancient Near Eastern world. Teaching students sensitivity to context is vital to their own spiritual formation for being taught something contrary to context jeopardizes both scientific and theological claims. In this presentation I will focus on how the literary, archetypal and historical Adam were understood in the Jewish world.”