The Emergence of Sin
The Cosmic Tyrant in Romans
Published on 27. July 2017
Book
Hardback
296 pages
978-0-19-027798-7 (ISBN)
Description
Where does evil come from? And how did it become so powerful?
We can have a sense that when we try to do right by one another, we aren't merely striving against ourselves. The feeling is that we are struggling against something--someone--else. As if there's a force--a person--that wishes us ill. In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul describes just such a person: Sin, a cosmic tyrant who constrains our moral freedom, confuses our moral judgment, and condemns us to slavery and to death.
Commentators have long argued about whether Paul literally means to say Sin is a person or is simply indulging in literary personification, but regardless of Paul's intentions, for modern readers it would seem clear enough: there is no such thing as a cosmic tyrant. Surely it is more reasonable to suppose "Sin" is merely a colorful way of describing individual misdeeds or, at most, a way of evoking the intractability of our social ills.
In The Emergence of Sin, Matthew Croasmun suggests we take another look. The vision of Sin he offers is at once scientific and theological, social and individual, corporeal and mythological. He argues both that the cosmic power Sin is nothing more than an emergent feature of a vast human network of transgression and that this power is nevertheless real, personal, and one whom we had better be ready to resist. Ultimately, what is on offer here is an account of the world re-mythologized at the hands of chemists, evolutionary biologists, sociologists, and entomologists. In this world, Paul's text is not a relic of a forgotten mythical past, but a field manual for modern living.
We can have a sense that when we try to do right by one another, we aren't merely striving against ourselves. The feeling is that we are struggling against something--someone--else. As if there's a force--a person--that wishes us ill. In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul describes just such a person: Sin, a cosmic tyrant who constrains our moral freedom, confuses our moral judgment, and condemns us to slavery and to death.
Commentators have long argued about whether Paul literally means to say Sin is a person or is simply indulging in literary personification, but regardless of Paul's intentions, for modern readers it would seem clear enough: there is no such thing as a cosmic tyrant. Surely it is more reasonable to suppose "Sin" is merely a colorful way of describing individual misdeeds or, at most, a way of evoking the intractability of our social ills.
In The Emergence of Sin, Matthew Croasmun suggests we take another look. The vision of Sin he offers is at once scientific and theological, social and individual, corporeal and mythological. He argues both that the cosmic power Sin is nothing more than an emergent feature of a vast human network of transgression and that this power is nevertheless real, personal, and one whom we had better be ready to resist. Ultimately, what is on offer here is an account of the world re-mythologized at the hands of chemists, evolutionary biologists, sociologists, and entomologists. In this world, Paul's text is not a relic of a forgotten mythical past, but a field manual for modern living.
Reviews / Votes
A striking study, then, and well worth reading for an original and stimulating exposition of Romans. Those interested in the philosophical questions of emergentism will find it fascinating and provocative and themselves, on closing the book, with many more questions that they wish to ask. * Euan Alexander Grant, The Emergence of Sin * ...highly theoretical... * Jeffrey S. Siker, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly * In one of the most innovative and compelling books on Paul to be published in years, The Emergence of Sin: The Cosmic Tyrant in Romans, Croasmun zeroes in on one of Paul's most puzzling and alienating concepts: his portrayal of sin-or, perhaps better, "Sin"-as a kind of mythic god, a personal force or energy that nefariously thwarts divine purposes and enslaves unsuspecting humans. * Wesley Hill, associate professor of New Testament at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, Marginalia Review of Books * [A] fantastic new book...The singular contribution of The Emergence of Sin is Croasmun's lengthy, accessible and paradigm-altering proposal that sin by the individual, Sin as a cosmological presence and Sin as a systemic can be explained best by emergence theory. * Scot McKnight, Patheos * The book is replete with his assiduous engagements with several important figures in modern emergentism, including Philip Clayton and Andy Clark. The natural corollary to this is that Christian theological discourse (in this case what he calls 'an emergent hamartiology') can be a potentially fruitful interlocutor for many non-theological disciplines... I have benefited much from Croasmun's work, and suspect that many others will find this book helpful as well. * Sang-il Kim, Reading Religion *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
605 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-027798-7 (9780190277987)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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Book
02/2020
Oxford University Press Inc
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E-Book
06/2017
1st Edition
OUP eBook
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E-Book
06/2017
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€49.99
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Person
Matthew Croasmun is Associate Research Scholar and Director of the Life Worth Living Program at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture and Lecturer of Divinity and Humanities at Yale University. He completed his Ph.D. in Religious Studies (New Testament) at Yale in 2014 and was a recipient of the 2015 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise for his dissertation, "The Body of Sin: An Emergent Account of Sin as a Cosmic Power in Romans 5-8."
Content
Introduction
Chapter 1. s/Sin: The Genealogy of a Person(ification)
Chapter 2. Emergence
Chapter 3. The Emergence of Persons Great and Small
Chapter 4. An Emergent Account of Sin in Romans
Chapter 5. Sin, Gender, and Empire
Chapter 6. Conclusions
Chapter 1. s/Sin: The Genealogy of a Person(ification)
Chapter 2. Emergence
Chapter 3. The Emergence of Persons Great and Small
Chapter 4. An Emergent Account of Sin in Romans
Chapter 5. Sin, Gender, and Empire
Chapter 6. Conclusions