Saving the Original Sinner, by Karl W. Giberson

The other day I overheard two theologians arguing a little playfully over whether, given God’s plan of salvation, aliens on another planet would need their own separate savior or whether Christ would do for the whole universe. One theologian argued that aliens would need a savior of their own flesh. The other said that Christ died once for all, and that would include aliens.

Their argument reminded me of Karl Giberson’s book, for it paralleled arguments in the 19th century about race and salvation that hinged on the question of whether more than one Adam was needed to account for the varieties of people on the earth.

The argument followed white su­premacist lines. Adam, some people reasoned, was the first ancestor of the white race. But there might be other Adams for other races. A disturbing conclusion was that Christian salvation, which depended on the Adam/Christ dichotomy in Pauline theology, did not extend to all the peoples of the earth. Some even  wondered which of the peoples of the earth were actually people.