Dogmatic Theology Vol 2 - Shedd - II - Chapter 1 Anthropology continued

Required reading

Dogmatic Theology Vol 2 by William G.T. Shedd (Available from Amazon or free here) - Continue Chapter 1 'Man's creation' by reading up to the paragraph that begins 'Secondly, the theological argument strongly favors traducianism' (found on page 29 of my edition).

My summary

Today Shedd continues his defence of traducianism by arguing that Biblical representations favour it.

Firstly, Shedd explains that individuals in scriptures are not propagated in parts but as wholes with the rest of the human race.  This is seen in the garden of Eden but also in references to humanity collectively in the rest of Scripture.

Secondly, Shedd argues against the notion that propagation is only physical. He cites various Scriptures that refer to man in his entirety of soul and body.  Thus creationism texts are easily applicable to traducianism.

What grabbed me

I liked the argument from the creation of Eve: 'That man was created a species in two individuals appears, also, from the account of the creation of Eve. According to Gen. 2:21-23, the female body was not made, as was the male, out of the dust of the ground, but out of a bone of the male. A fractional part of the male man was formed by creative power into the female man. Eve was derived out of Adam. " The man," says St. Paul (1 Cor. 11 : 8), "is not made out of (ek) the woman, but the woman out of (ex) the man." And the entire woman, soul and body, was produced in this way. For Moses does not say that the body of Eve was first made out of Adam's rib, and then that her soul was separately created and breathed into it—as was the method, when Adam's body was made out of the dust of the ground — but represents the total Eve, soul and body, as formed out of a part of Adam. "The rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said. This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh : she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man," Geo. 2 : 22, 23. The fact that the total female was supernaturally produced from the male, favors the traducian position that the total man is propagated ; that the soul like the body may be derived. The same creative act which produced the body of Eve out of a rib of Adam, produced her soul also. By a single Divine energy, Eve was derived from Adam, psychically as well as physically. This goes to show that when a child of Adam is propagated, the propagation includes the whole person, and is both psychical and physical. For the connection between a child and its parents is nearer and closer than was the connection between Adam and Eve at creation.'

Amen.

Next week's reading

Continue Chapter 1 'Man's creation' by reading up to the paragraph that begins '(c) The temptation by Satan is best explained by traducianism' (found on page 49 of my edition).

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.