‘Defending Sin’ is an attempt to argue to reveal truth rather than to win at all costs. By defending the biblical account of the fall, Madueme’s work serves a larger purpose. He makes the case that Christians can embrace science without capitulating on matters that Scripture and the Christian tradition have agreed on for millennia.

Science is by nature fallible and subject to revision. Theories widely held today may be dismissed in the near future as our knowledge of the natural world grows. History offers numerous examples of now-discarded beliefs: the earth is the center of the universe, maggots spontaneously generate in rotting meat, the body is governed by four humors, and Newtonian mechanics can explain the entire universe.

As Thomas Kuhn argues in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, scientific theories and paradigms change, often suddenly, with new evidence and revised models. What scientists “know” today may be swept into the dustbins of intellectual history tomorrow. This is true of theories about the origins of the universe and human life that seem to conflict with certain readings of Genesis.

Of making many books about reconciling Darwinism and Christianity there is no end. Many such works suggest we abandon long-held doctrines or revise them to fit contemporary scientific findings and paradigms. In Defending Sin: A Response to the Challenges of Evolution and the Natural Sciences, Hans Madueme—a trained medical doctor who’s now a professor of biblical and theological studies at Covenant College—attempts to regain some of the doctrinal ground lost in the discussion between Christian theology and the natural sciences. He especially focuses on hamartiology, the doctrine of sin.

This book is, fundamentally, an apologetic for traditional Christian teaching about creation’s original goodness and humanity’s fall.

Five Aspects of Biblical Realism

At the center of Madueme’s apologetic is a set of methodological assumptions he calls “biblical realism.” He identifies five key components of this approach that shape a Christian understanding of the relationship between faith and science.

First, biblical realism asserts that supernatural realities actively operate within God’s world. Even scientists who affirm the supernatural often pursue knowledge through methodological naturalism, which assumes “only natural explanations are permissible in scientific research” (45). But this approach can’t account for God’s supernatural intervention in history, whether we’re speaking of virginal conception, resurrection from the dead, or direct acts of creation. In contrast, Madueme upholds both the regularity of the natural world and the possibility of direct intervention by God without embracing fideism.

Second, biblical realism upholds the principle of dogmatic inerrancy, which states that biblical passages are authoritative even when they appear to conflict with current science. Madueme contrasts this view to what he calls “evidential inerrancy,” which avoids conflict between Scripture and science by “reassess[ing] the relevant biblical texts, perhaps by invoking some kind of accommodation, reinterpreting the text, or, more radically, downgrading biblical authority” (55). This can lead to dismantling inerrancy itself.

Third, biblical realism recognizes scientific fallibilism—the idea that the natural sciences, while valuable, are inherently limited due to human finitude and fallibility. Madueme argues that because science is subject to these limitations, we require the corrective influence of divine revelation to fully understand the world.

Fourth, biblical realism requires doctrinal confidence among Christians. According to Madueme, “Central doctrinal beliefs receive their epistemic warrant from Scripture and should therefore not be revised (or abandoned) in the face of conflicting scientific theories” (45).

Read More