As Augustine clearly recognizes, the affirmation of humankind can become a hindrance to the pursuit of God. On first examination, however, such affirmation does not appear pernicious, but, as Augustine’s description makes clear, these affirmations are deceptively damaging to one’s desires, potentially misdirecting them toward creaturely praises and away from true praise of God.
The gospels offer what are possibly the most significant instances of structural evil in the New Testament through the depiction of Jesus’s work amongst those who are ostracize by society and through his ongoing critique of the religious establishment. Jesus refuses to play by the rules established by the Pharisees, Saducees, or scribes. Instead, he points to the true order of things and what it means to be God’s people. His engagement of those outside of spheres of power and influence and his condemnation of the religious leaders of his day demonstrate Jesus’ confrontation of structural evil. He was not only seeking to address the sins of individual believers, but to overturn the a system that was not representing God faithfully despite claiming to do so.
The Fall and Structural Evil in the Christian Life Today
As believers, we are responsible for our own actions and activities, but these actions and activities are not disconnected from the broader communities of which we are a part. All of us influence and are influenced by broader social, cultural, and organizational contexts. Like the woman in the garden, we find ourselves trying to discern the truth and, if my own experience is normative, often failing to do so. Christians, both as individuals and groups, have misrecognized the order of things throughout history and will continue to do so until Christ’s return. The fact that we will continue to fail until that time, however, does not negate the call to live lives worthy of Christ.
Understanding that structural evil persists, in part, because we continually misrecognize the order of things, requires believers, both individually and corporately, to critically examine underlying assumptions about the way the world supposedly works. The presence of structural evil should not produce within us an isolationist posture. We must continue to engage our fallen world and our imperfect church. We must, however, be diligent in our reflection on the Scriptures and on Christian practice. We must look beyond our normal community norms and resist the sort of conformity that does not call us to mimic Christ, but an incomplete articulation of him. In short, the fall has limited our vision and made us less sensitive to the disorder of our world. Reflection on the fall and the structural evil that has resulted from it should cultivate within us a dependence on the one who is willing and able to change our fallen hearts and minds.
Questions for Discussion
1. Describe some specific areas of life that the fall has impacted?
2. How is it significant to understand the fall as an event that puts all of humanity on the same level in light of the gospel?
3. What examples of structural evil in the Old Testament can you think of?
4. What might be some examples of structural evil in today’s world?
Bibliography and Recommended Reading
Emmrich, Martin. “The Temptation Narrative of Genesis 3:1–6: A Prelude to the Pentateuch and the History of Israel.” EvQ 73 (2001) 3–20.
Hamilton, Victor P. The Book of Genesis: Chapters 1–17. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990.
Joines, Karen R. “The Serpent in Gen 3.” ZAW 87 (1975) 1–11.
Moberly, R. W. L. “Did the Serpent Get It Right?” JTS 39 (1988) 1–27.
Augustine. The Confessions of Saint Augustine. Translated by Edward Bouverie Pusey. London: Aeterna, 2015.
Sailhamer, John H. The Pentateuch as Narrative: A Biblical-Theological Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992.
Scullion, John J. Genesis: A Commentary for Students, Teachers, and Preachers. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 1992.
Skinner, John. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis. International Critical Commentary. New York: Scribner, 1910.
Speiser, E. A. Genesis. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964.
Summer, George R. “‘You Have Not Yet Considered the Gravity of Sin’: A Key Retrieval for Our Time.” ProE 25 (2016) 261–73.
Townsend, P. Wayne. “Eve’s Answer to the Serpent: An Alternative Paradigm for Sin and Some Implications in Theology.” CTJ 33 (1998) 399–420.
Trible, Phyllis. God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality. Overtures to Biblical Theology. Phil-adelphia: Fortress, 1978.
Vogels, Walter. “Like One of Us, Knowing tôb and ra’.” Semeia 81 (1998) 144–57.
Wenham, Gordon J. “Sanctuary Symbolism in the Garden of Eden Story.” Proceedings from the 9th World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem. Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1986.
———. Genesis 1–15. WBC 1. Waco: Word, 1987.
48. Plantinga, Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be, 25.
49. Ibid., 27.
50. Murphy, “On the Priority of Personal to Structural Evil in Catholic Social Teaching,” 150.
51. Taylor, Modern Social Imaginaries, 23.
52. Taylor, Secular Age, 176.
53. Ibid., 29–30.
54. Joines states that “the serpent in Gen 3 represents the embodiment of a strange combination of life, wisdom, and chaos” (Joines, “Serpent in Gen 3,” 9). When the woman looks at the serpent, she does not necessarily see it as a symbol of evil and chaos, but of wisdom and life.
55. Hamilton takes a similar view (Book of Genesis, 186). Speiser also concludes that 3:1 is not a question suggesting that the combination is a “half-interrogative, half-reflective exclamation.” See Skinner, Genesis, 73.
56. Sailhamer states, “The centerpiece of the story is the question of the knowledge of the ‘good.’ The snake implied by his questions that God was keeping this knowledge from the man and the woman, while the sense of the narratives in the first two chapters has been that God was keeping this knowledge for the man and the woman” (Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative, 103–4). Walton’s analysis is similar, though he identifies conceptual parallels within ancient Near Eastern literature (204–6).
57. VanGemeren discusses the real politic and the vox populi as standing in opposition, in many ways, to each other and to divine revelation. VanGemeren, Interpreting the Prophetic Word. The conflict between real politic and vox populi and divine revelation suggests the presence of social or structural evil.
58.