Proclaimer Blog
Death before the fall
To be honest, many of us spend a lot of our time reading books we already agree with. That's no bad thing. Reinforcing truth already learnt is an important part of Christian growth and sometimes even familiar truths restated take our breath away once again. But I've just finished reading a book whose foundational premise I don't necessarily agree with. It's called "Death before the Fall" by Ronald Osborn.
It may surprise our brothers down the road but I am not a theistic evolutionist. So a book which seeks to justify whether animal death could occur before the fall in order to allow for an evolutionary perspective on Genesis might seem like something to avoid.
But no. It's true, of course, that having a preconditioned framework for any discussion on Genesis is going to affect your hermeneutic to some extent. I can't believe that any Christian comes to Genesis without some form of presupposition. Nevertheless, this is a book I learnt from, and I say that in the most warm hearted generous way I can think. It got me thinking about literalism as a hermeneutic and how it has dangers as well as strengths. It helped me evaluate how I myself read these exalted texts of Gen 1-3.
I can't say it changed my mind on the whole creation issue. But it got me thinking about reading Scripture in general and I found it astoundingly challenging. It's published by IVP Academic, but you should be able to get hold of it in the UK OK. You're not going to agree with all of it, or even its foundational premise. But that doesn't matter. I say again, it doesn't matter: it will still do you good, I believe.
Go on. Dare you.