Translation of Evolutie in de erfzondeleer.

Bibliographical footnotes.

Introduction -- Two World Views -- The Traditional Concept -- The Evolutionist World View -- "Original Sin" as "Cosmic Immaturity" -- "Original Sin" in the Story of Paradise -- Who Is Adam? -- The Garden of Eden: "Paradise" -- Protology -- "Original Sin" in Romans 5:12-21 -- The Consept of Original Sin according to St. Paul -- Once More: Who is Adam? -- The Evolution of the Church's Doctrine of Original Sin -- Infant Baptism -- Original Sin as Individual Taint Caused by Sin of Adam -- Hereditary Transmission -- Epilogue: Paradise Lost --

First of all, this is not a religio-scientific look at anthropology, paleontology, etc. It is not too concerned about the scientific aspects of evolution except to admit that evolution has utterly destroyed the Eden-myth and the Adam-myth. The author is a theologian, and he is concernd about our contemporary understanding of original sin. If Eden did not exist (and evolution proves that it did not), then is original sin a fact? Might not original sin be nothing more than a kind of human immaturity? Trooster says no. He wnats to preserve the reality of original sin while doing away with the Eden-myth, and he does thin in his book by a careful analysis of scripture and by looking at the teaching of the ancient Church. All men, Trooster concludes, are involved in sin because they are involved with humanity. This sin is more than mere imperfection; it is a fundamental refusual to cooperate with God, a failure to asume responsability for the world, a spuring of the natural covenant between man and God. We have a "solidarity-in-sin"with our human progenitors. At the same time, Trooster does not belive that men have "fallen from perfectio" (Eden), or that pain and death came into the world as the result of sin. Nor does he belive that sin is passed on biologically through procreation. Yet sin, he says, is a reality. All men are born into it because they are born human.