Original Sin: Illuminating the Riddle
(New Studies in Biblical Theology No. 5)
By Henri Blocher. Apollos. 158 pages. £10.99
ISBN 0 85111 514 4
Henri Blocher is well-known as a sensitive and incisive theologian, with a special interest in the issues raised by the earlier chapters of Genesis. In this new work, he explores a dark and complex subject, and as his subtitle suggests, makes no claim to resolve all its difficulties. He does claim to shed light on the matter, however, and the book has many enlightening comments and interpretations.
The core of the work is a detailed exposition of two essential passages of Scripture: the Eden story and Romans 5. His treatment of the former passage is full of insight. In the face of much commentary which would argue otherwise, Blocher shows that original sin cannot be merely an idea of an 'omni-temporal myth' (p.56). The doctrine has no substance if it does not refer to a real historical happening. Blocher also cuts through quite a lot of fudge about the possibility or potentiality of sin in our first parents.
