Adam – der erste Mensch oder Symbol der Menschheit?

Using the example of the Koranic Adam, this study investigates the extent to which the concept of evolution and the religious conception of human creation can be reconciled and what consequences such an encounter would have for theological perspectives. The focus is on the religious narrative of the creation of Adam, which, according to the Koran, arose from earth or clay, animated by the Spirit of God. The author subjects this narrative to a cultural-evolutionary interpretation that no longer understands Adam as the first human, but as a representative of a new type of human who, in the Neolithic age, followed the way from a previously nomadic to a sedentary way of life characterized by agriculture and cattle breeding. According to this interpretation, there must have been generations of people before Adam, an idea that is not fundamentally alien to the Islamic culture of thought, because the idea of a ‚pre-Adamite‘ human being is the subject of individual writings and traditions, as the author makes clear. In addition, her comparison with the creation myths of other cultures shows that Adam can also be understood from the Koranic point of view as a generic term for primitive man.