Banished from Eden: Original Sin and Evolutionary Theory in the Drama of Salvation

The biblical primal history, Genesis 1-11, from the Fall in Paradise to the Tower of Babel, describes a dynamics of evil that seems to correspond to modern experience. Yet original sin is now a problematic notion for many - in the 'dogma' of modernity, nature and freedom are separated. Raymund Schwager explores how, if approached in an interdisciplinary way, and understood at the profound levels of human experience and thought that they represent, evolutionary theory and the doctrine of original sin need not contradict each other. Original sin, which ostensibly confuses separate realms in a mythological way, may preserve a deeper and critical view of what the 'dogma' of modernity has on the surface artificially separated. Looking at current developments in genetic technology, based on the concept of the organism as a living memory, he observes the experience of suffering and evil in the contexts of natural and human history, and of revelation history. The Christian message of the drama of salvation provides the context for this dynamic exploration of the fundamental issues for human self-reflection and for theological enquiry. English language publication of this, the final work of Raymund Schwager, one of the key exponents of the ideas of René Girard, has been eagerly awaited. Raymund Schwager was Professor of Theology at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. He died in 2004, shortly before the completion of the translation of this volume. His exciting and revolutionary work Must There Be Scapegoats: Violence and Redemption in the Bible is also co-published by Inigo Enterprises and Gracewing.