The Fall from Accountability to God

Abstract

Abstract This chapter offers a theological reading of the Genesis story of the Fall, arguing that this story presents sin as rooted in the fall away from accountability to God. More specifically, in conversation with Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Karl Barth, the chapter contends that the tree of life reveals the garden in Eden to be a place of accountability to God, where the fullness of life and flourishing is defined by God’s judgement. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, by contrast, reveals the deathly possibility of humans rejecting God’s judgement in favour of prioritizing their own judgement, grounded in their own autonomy. As such, the disobedient act of eating from this tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents the human fall away from accountability to God.