Death Before The Fall

Introduction

Part One: On Literalism

Chapter One: The Creation: A Plain Reading
Chapter Two: What’s Eating Biblical Literalists?: Creationism & The Enlightenment Project
Chapter Three: Unwholesome Complexity: Literalism As Scientism’s Pale Mimetic Rival
Chapter Four: Progressive Vs. Degenerating Science: Weighing Incommensurable Paradigms
Chapter Five: Does Your God Need Stage Props?: On The Theological Necessity Of Methodological Atheism
Chapter Six: The Enclave Mentality: Identity Foreclosure & The Fundamentalist Mind
Chapter Seven: The Gnostic Syndrome: When Literalism Becomes A Heresy
Chapter Eight: Four Witnesses Barth, Calvin, Augustine, & Maimonides On The Literal Meaning Of Genesis
Chapter Nine: If Not Foundationalism, What Then?: From Tower-Building To Net-Mending

Part Two: On Animal Suffering

Epigraph Two: In Praise Of Self-Deprecation
Chapter Ten: Stasis, Deception, Curse: Three Literalist Dilemmas
Chapter Eleven: A Midrash: C. S. Lewis’s Cosmic Conflict Theodicy Revisited
Chapter Twelve: God Of The Whirlwind: Animal Ferocity In The Book Of Job
Chapter Thirteen: Creation & Kenosis: Evolution And Christ’s Self Emptying Way Of The Cross
Chapter Fourteen: Animal Ethics, Sabbath Rest

Conclusion

Additional Info
In this eloquent and provocative “open letter” to evangelicals, Ronald Osborn wrestles with the problem of biblical literalism and the ongoing challenge of animal suffering within an evolutionary understanding of the world. Osborn forces us to ask hard questions, not only of the Bible and church tradition, but also and especially of ourselves.