Biblical Apologetics: Metahistory and Causal Retrospection

Abstract

The Orthodox Christian tradition considers «natural evil» — the presence in nature of natural cataclysms, suffering and death as a consequence of the original sin of Adam and Eve. However, the scientific picture of the world objectively convinces us in the opposite — «natural evil» is an integral characteristic of the universe since its inception. With the theological and apologetic point of view this contradiction can be resolved when you look at the history of the world in the light of two events: fall of man and Redemption as a super- or meta-historical, which influenced the future and the past by Divine foresight. The author provides a rationale for the possibility of this approach.