Aquinas, Original Sin, and the Challenge of Evolution - Softcover

Houck, Daniel W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1108725430 ISBN 13: 9781108725439

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2022

Synopsis

Is original sin compatible with evolution? Many today believe the answer is 'No'. Engaging Aquinas's revolutionary account of the doctrine, Daniel W. Houck argues that there is not necessarily a conflict between this Christian teaching and mainstream biology. He draws on neglected texts outside the Summa Theologiae to show that Aquinas focused on humanity's loss of friendship with God - not the corruption of nature (or personal guilt). Aquinas's account is theologically attractive in its own right. Houck proposes, moreover, a new Thomist view of original sin that is consonant with evolution. This account is developed in dialogue with biblical scholarship on Jewish hamartiology and salient modern thinkers (including Kant, Schleiermacher, Barth, and Schoonenberg), and it is systematically connected to debates over nature, grace, the desire for God, and justification. In addition, the book canvasses a number of neglected premodern approaches to original sin, including those of Anselm, Abelard, and Lombard.

About this title

About the Author

Daniel W. Houck is senior pastor of Calvary Hill Baptist Church (Fairfax) and adjunct professor of theology at the John Leland Center for Theological Studies. A research fellow at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 2017–18, his publications have appeared in journals such as Archa Verbi and Nova et Vetera.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1108725430
• ISBN 13: 9781108725439
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 294