Introduction by Mary McDermott Shideler
One of the first women to graduate from Oxford University, Dorothy Sayers pursued her goals whether or not what she wanted to do was ordinarily understood to be -feminine.- Sayers did not devote a great deal of time to talking or writing about feminism, but she did explicitly address the issue of women's role in society in the two classic essays collected here.
Central to Sayers's reflections is the conviction that both men and women are first of all human beings and must be regarded as essentially much more alike than different. We are to be true not so much to our sex as to our humanity. The proper role of both men and women, in her view, is to find the work for which they are suited and to do it.
Though written several decades ago, these essays still offer in Sayers's piquant style a sensible and conciliatory approach to ongoing gender issues.

Theological anthropology is a vast and complex doctrinal subject that needs to be elaborated with careful attention to its relation to other major doctrines. It must confess the glory and misery of humanity, from creation in the image of God to the fall into a state of sin. It must reckon with a holism that spans distinctions between body, soul, and spirit, and a unity that encompasses male and female, as well as racial and cultural difference. The Christian Doctrine of Humanity represents the proceedings of the sixth annual Los Angeles Theology Conference, which sought constructively and comprehensively to engage the task of theological anthropology.

In this enlightening study, renowned twentieth-century theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer offers a careful textual analysis of the story of creation, approaching the biblical tale of Genesis with the eye of a philosopher and the soul of a true Christian.

"Creation and Fall" is Bonhoeffer's lucid, brilliant analysis of the first three chapters of Genesis. Here he discusses the seeming scientific naiveté behind the creation story, God's love and goodness, and humanity's creation, its free will, and its blessedness. Bonhoeffer also tackles difficult questions that are raised from the first book of the Bible, questions about the seemingly redundant second story of creation, about God's own beginning, about the source of the light that was created the first day. The author then expounds upon Adam and Eve's fall from grace: How could they, creatures made in God's image, have thought to oppose God so foully? Where did the first evil come from? How did humanity lose its right to live in paradise?

In "Temptation," Bonhoeffer questions how temptation appeared in the midst of Eden's innocence, and he explores the very nature of evil. Bonhoeffer explains that Jesus Christ helps us to understand and conquer physical and spiritual temptation through His grace and goodness.

Misunderstandings about what it means for humans to be created in God's image have wreaked devastation throughout history -- for example, slavery in the U. S., genocide in Nazi Germany, and the demeaning of women everywhere.

In Dignity and Destiny John Kilner explores what the Bible itself teaches about humanity being in God's image. He discusses in detail all of the biblical references to the image of God, interacts extensively with other work on the topic, and documents how misunderstandings of it have been so problematic.

People made according to God's image, Kilner says, have a special connection with God and are intended to be a meaningful reflection of him. Because of sin, they don't actually reflect him very well, but Kilner shows why the popular idea that sin has damaged the image of God is mistaken. He also clarifies the biblical difference between being God's image (which Christ is) and being in God's image (which humans are). He explains how humanity's creation and renewal in God's image are central, respectively, to human dignity and destiny.

Locating Christ at the center of what God's image means, Kilner charts a constructive way forward and reflects on the tremendously liberating impact that a sound understanding of the image of God can have in the world today.

As a part of the Counterpoints series, Four Views on the Historical Adam clearly outlines four primary views on Adam held by evangelicals, featuring top-notch proponents of each view presenting their positions in their own words and critiquing the positions with which they disagree. You will come away with a better understanding of the key biblical and theological issues at stake and of the implications of Adam for contemporary Christian witness and church life.

 

Contributors include Denis O. Lamoureux, John H. Walton, C. John Collins, and William Barrick. Each focuses his essay on answering the following questions:

 

• What is the biblical case for your viewpoint, and how do you reconcile it both with modern science and with passages and potential interpretations that seem to counter it?
• In what ways is your view more theologically consistent and coherent than other views?
• What are the implications of your view for the spiritual life and public witness of the church and individual believers, and how is your view a healthier alternative for both?

 

Concluding reflections by pastor-scholars Gregory A. Boyd and Philip Graham Ryken highlight the significance of the topic in the faith of everyday believers.