It is always interesting to watch contemporary theologians speak to the issue of the Fall.  If one is trying to keep in step with the zeitgeist, it is certainly easier to evade, obfuscate, etc.  For to affirm a real space-time fall means you are saying something about the very heart of reality and history.  You are not just shadow-boxing.  You are putting yourself out there.  You are saying there was an era of history before sin entered the world.  You are saying there was an era where man was not sinful, and that now he is.  You are saying that there was a major shift in the very nature of the created order, brought about by real, historical human disobedience.  You are saying that death entered into a world which up until that time had not known death.  And if you tease that out, well, you have put yourself on the wrong side of history.

So, it was interesting as I read Etienne Gilson on Bonaventure on this issue.  

". . . for the absurdity [i.e., that God created things in the way we currently find them--broken, sinful, etc.] instantly becomes apparent of supposing that a perfect God created man in the state of wretchedness in which he now is." (p. 435)

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