Douglas A. King’s AN INNOCENT WORLD is a nonfiction work that poses a fascinating “What If”: What would our world be like if Adam and Eve had not eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? King explores this alternative reality, using deductive logic within a Christian framework, to envision a world of “Innocents”—sinless, immortal beings incapable of evil—contrasted with the “Guilty,” who chose knowledge and suffering.
King’s evaluation rests heavily on his reinterpretation of the Tree of Life. He posits that it’s not a one-and-done source of immortality but rather a “life sustainer, maintaining the human body indefinitely.” This foundational premise allows him to construct a world where Innocents are, for all practical purposes, immortal, untouched by disease or disability: “Subsequent generations lived shorter and shorter lives because they no longer had access to the Tree of Life to maintain their bodies.” This premise underpins many of his conclusions. For instance, King argues that Innocents would possess “large eyes, big heads, and slim bodies” (essentially mirroring the classic “space alien” archetype) since “Innocents would have unfettered outward attention that is not drawn inward onto the guilt and pain that exists in our minds. Couple this increased attention with a necessary optical capacity to handle the visual data and we get large eyes and a thick visual cortex.”
King presents his reasoning as deductive, but too often relies on assumptions and interpretations that deviate significantly from mainstream Christian theology. He writes, for instance, that God “wasn’t always God, for He once (or more often) felt like committing evil,” a declaration that would raise eyebrows among many theologians. King also claims that “We have lived past lives,” a concept not explicitly endorsed by mainstream Christian doctrine. Moreover, his conclusion that “We are here to suffer” is a bleak, potentially discouraging message—and certainly not one universally embraced within Christianity.
AN INNOCENT WORLD is a thought-provoking work that engages earnestly with the implications of choice and the often-uncomfortable reality of suffering. Its reliance on non-standard theological assertions, however, makes it less than helpful for those seeking a deeper understanding of mainstream Christian beliefs. Compared to other works exploring Christian theology and ethics, such as C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce, AN INNOCENT WORLD lacks the scholarly rigor one finds in academic theological treatises and the pastoral focus of books intended for a general Christian readership. It occupies a very niche space, appealing primarily to those with a penchant for unconventional interpretations of biblical narratives.
Douglas A. King’s AN INNOCENT WORLD presents a fascinating but flawed theological thought experiment that relies on unsupported assertions about God’s evolution, past lives, and suffering as divine purpose.
~Edward Sung for IndieReader