“If there is a natural, there is a spiritual,” Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15. This is often read as a statement about two states: As soon as Adam was created a living soul, he was destined to rise to the state of “Spirit.” In context, though, this contrast is a contrast not of two states of one man, but of two men. Paul immediately goes on to identify the natural/soulish with “the first man” and “live-giving Spirit” with the second.
Hence, Paul’s if-then statement appears to mean: If there is Adam, there is also an eschatological Adam. Once God creates through the Word, He commits Himself be incarnate as the word.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
