English 233:  Introduction to Western Humanities - Baroque & Enlightenment

Note on "relationships among the 'nodal episodes'."

Here are some of the questions you should be able to develop answers to.  Some of the answers are implicit in other notes to this memo.

(1) How do the implications of the Biblical description of the original Creation help shape the conception of the nature of sin?  (Or:  how is the notion of sin informed by the notion we form of the character of the order of things God originally established?)

(2) How does the Christian doctrine of the Crucifixion depend on a distinctive picture about the effects of the Fall? (That is: Jews and Muslims also accept the Genesis story about the Fall of Mankind. But they reject the Christian theology of the Atonement [along with the Trinitarian conception of the Deity that it presupposes]. Hence, they must either reject the idea that redemption is necessary, or they must have a very different notion about how it has been or will be accomplished. How is this so?)

(3) How does the teaching concerning the effects of Original Sin impact upon the problems that attend interpreting Scripture itself?  That is, how does it help explain why it is often difficult for readers (ordinary folk, learned commentators, professional theologians) to reach agreement on the meaning of passages and episodes (even when they agree that the Bible is to be accepted as the Word of God)?

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  Suggestions, comments and questions are welcome.  Please send them to lyman@ksu.edu .

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      This page last updated 11 October 2000.