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I don’t see Paul’s theology as being at risk.
Certainly the analogies in Rom and 1 Cor might be disturbed if Adam is symbolic (though it’s not entirely unreasonable to use a well-accepted mythological entity in an analogy), but not the actual explanation for how things work.
In Rom 5:12 we are connected with Adam “because all have sinned,” not because all are descended from Adam. The latter would make the analogy fail, since our connection with Christ is faith. We’re certainly not his descendants biologically. So we’re defined as members of one family or the other by our decisions, not our biology.
Paul does also believes that we are all descended from Adam, and he uses that in 1 Çor 15:22, but the way in which sin and salvation work isn’t disturbed if he’s wrong about that.
I can see evolution as causing a problem for other reasons, because it (together with generics, cosmology, geology and archaeology) cast doubt upon the historical / scientific accuracy of the first part of Genesis, and of course Paul’s writings. But I don’t see it as causing problems for theology.
Certainly the analogies in Rom and 1 Cor might be disturbed if Adam is symbolic (though it’s not entirely unreasonable to use a well-accepted mythological entity in an analogy), but not the actual explanation for how things work.
In Rom 5:12 we are connected with Adam “because all have sinned,” not because all are descended from Adam. The latter would make the analogy fail, since our connection with Christ is faith. We’re certainly not his descendants biologically. So we’re defined as members of one family or the other by our decisions, not our biology.
Paul does also believes that we are all descended from Adam, and he uses that in 1 Çor 15:22, but the way in which sin and salvation work isn’t disturbed if he’s wrong about that.
I can see evolution as causing a problem for other reasons, because it (together with generics, cosmology, geology and archaeology) cast doubt upon the historical / scientific accuracy of the first part of Genesis, and of course Paul’s writings. But I don’t see it as causing problems for theology.
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