Henri Blocher - Original Sin: Illuminating the Riddle

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New Studies in Biblical Theology is a series of monographs that address key issues in the discipline of biblical theology. Contributions to the series focus on one or more of three areas: 1. the nature and status of biblical theology, including its relations with other disciplines (e.g. historical theology, exegesis, systematic theology, historical criticism, narrative theology); 2. the articulation and exposition of the structure of thought of a particular biblical writer or corpus; and 3. the delineation of a biblical theme across all or part of the biblical corpora.

Above all, these monographs are creative attempts to help thinking Christians understand their Bibles better. The series aims simultaneously to instruct and to edify, to interact with the current literature, and to point the way ahead. In Gods universe, mind and heart should not be divorced: in this series we will try not to separate what God has joined together. While the notes interact with the best of the scholarly literature, the text is uncluttered with untransliterated Greek and Hebrew, and tries to avoid too much technical jargon. The volumes are written within the framework of confessional evangelicalism, but there is always an attempt at thoughtful engagement with the sweep of the relevant literature.

Henri Blocher is a theologian of the very first rank, and still too little known outside the francophone world. Steeped in the Reformed tradition, he is not chained by it, as this volume attests; he is able to think through the interlocking contributions of historical theology, biblical theology and systematic theology, and come to fresh conclusions in the light of Scripture, without overturning all that is valuable from the past. But this book has an importance beyond its contribution to reflection on original sin. Western culture has moved away from thinking that the human dilemma is bound up with sin that calls for repentance; it prefers to think that our dilemma is bound up with epistemology that calls for creative discourse that remakes our world. We no longer answer to the God who is our Maker and Judge; we answer to our restrictive interpretative communities. In such a world, it is important for Christians to think systemically about their faith, for we are involved in a systemic worldview clash whose parameters become more sharply focused with every passing year. If we cannot agree on what the problem is, we certainly cannot agree on what the solution is which in this case jeopardizes the gospel itself. So this is a book to be read and thought through with great care.