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In Adam’s Fall: A Meditation on the Christian Doctrine of Original Sin

Reviewed by Christopher Palmer.

This book examines the doctrine of original sin. The author tells us that he “will defend the doctrine in ... its most extreme form”, but this does not mean it is a narrow interpretation. Rather, the book offers a subtle and closely-argued reading of the doctrine, loyal to Scripture and classical theology, and open to modern insights and challenges.

The book has three parts. In the first, McFarland examines the history of the doctrine and common objections to it. In the second part, he proposes an understanding of human will in terms of an anthropology which distinguishes human nature from its manifestation in each particular human person. The human will is a feature of the nature we share, but in each person the will is the means by which who she or he is individually is realised. McFarland proceeds in part three to reconstruct the doctrine of original sin on this basis. In that we share a fallen nature – and so a fallen will – the will of each person necessarily follows desires that we cannot chose and which turn us away from God. So original sin is congenital and places human beings in solidarity with each other, and is properly a feature of each individual, so that I cannot disown it as not ‘mine’. In an illuminating image, he likens original sin to “the damage that afflicts the members of a radically co-dependent household.” In the final chapters, he works out the implications of what belief in the universality of sin says to victims of sin and in relation to societal sin.

This book is not easy reading (to call it a ‘meditation’ is misleading). It is not possible to skim it or read it only in part, as the argument of each section carefully builds on the last. For those who are theologically interested, it will reward the effort invested and will aid theological reflection on pastoral situations. For those who preach, the arguments of this book would require significant ‘translation’ to give even an intelligent congregation a chance of understanding – but well worth the read nonetheless.