죄는 유전되는가?: 진화와 원죄에 대한 프레드릭 테넌트의 논의

Abstract

Evolutionary theory questioned Adam’s historicity, his Fall, and the doctrine of original sin. Frederick Tennant was a pioneering theologian who, accepting the achievement of natural science, sought to provide a new explanation for the origin of sin. He found it inappropriate to give a moral judgement on the animal nature of human beings which was the result of the evolutionary process. According to him, committing sin is not the necessary consequence of the corrupted human nature, but sin happens becuase the moral consciousness, which gradually appears in human experience, fails to animal instincts. What Tennant sought was not the destruction of the Christian faith, but the rebuilding of the Christian knowledge in accordance with the modern academic achievement. He emphasised that his theory was not connected with the fundamental contents of the Christian faith, because apart from the question of sin’s origin, the universality of actual sin is the sufficient basis of the gospel of redemption. Tennant’s view reminds that human knowledge of the revelation progresses as that of the world does.