Fall and Sin: What We Have Become as Sinners

Marguerite Shuster argues that certain aspects of the traditional doctrine of the Fall, including the belief that it took place in time and space, cannot simply be set aside without serious consequences for our doctrine of God and our understanding of human identity, dignity, and responsibility. She explores the nature and extent of sin and examines such problematic issues as "degrees" of sin and culpability. Despite the seriousness with which Shuster treats these topics, her discussion is not despairing but instead points to the redemption that God has accomplished in Christ. Filled with contemporary allusions and completed with model sermons on the Fall and sin, this volume is one of the best available studies of this key Christian doctrine.

About the Author :
Marguerite Shuster is professor of preaching at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California.

Review :
James F. Kay "In a time when speaking of sin, 'original' or otherwise, has disappeared from the 'feel-good' ethos of our culture, Marguerite Shuster's unblinking study of the human condition reawakens our slumbering responsibility and recalls us to unsentimental hope in Jesus Christ. Her intellectually sparkling sermons, speaking directly to her hearers alongside her theological expositions, show how 'the Fall' remains pertinent in proclaiming the gospel. In these pages we find a theologian -- and a preacher -- in worthy succession to Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Reinhold Niebuhr." John Bolt "An elegant and persuasive challenge to a key commonplace of modern theology that denies the Fall as a chronological event and considers it only an existential affirmation of human fallenness. With clear biblical-theological argument and elegant preaching, Marguerite Shuster makes clear how high the stakes are in this denial. This book of hers is a valuable contribution to constructive, contemporary, evangelical systematic theology." Stephen T. Davis "Almost nothing is more countercultural today than telling secular people that they are guilty before God and need a redeemer. In this outstanding book Marguerite Shuster presents the Christian doctrines of sin and the Fall in a way that is convincing and supremely clear. Written from a broadly Reformed perspective, the book is penetrating and tightly argued. Its unsentimental and realistic look at the human condition apart from God is tempered by and points to a solid, biblically based hope. An ordained minister, a former pastor, and now a seminary professor, Shuster enhances her book with five powerful and incisive sermons." Vernon Grounds "With this work of solid scholarship Marguerite Shuster has given us an indispensable resource for understanding the very foundations of biblical faith. In a fresh, engaging style she lucidly articulates the pivotal tenets of Reformed orthodoxy. As interpreted and applied here by Shuster, the ancient biblical text brilliantly illuminates contemporary problems." Theology Today"This well-informed and accessible theological study with model sermons will cause those theologians and preachers squeamish about sin to take another look at the tradition they have jettisoned and will serve them well in the classroom and the pulpit as they seek to offer their hearers words of true dignity and lasting hope."