I agree. I think this is why many who have struggled through the question of evolution’s impact on Christian theology have found it helpful to draw from Irenaeus’s approach to the fall narrative. Irenaeus – as I’m sure you know, but I explain in order to make the point for any readers who may be less familiar – said that Adam was created not perfect (the text never says “perfect”) but in a state of childlike immaturity, with the intent that he should learn wisdom gradually, the natural way, through life and discipline and suffering. In this view, Adam’s sin was essentially that he tried to short-circuit that process by eating a magical wisdom-giving fruit, rather than patiently awaiting the normal, painfully drawn-out process of becoming wise. This Irenaean view puts suffering back in a more central role in theology.
To better understand what I’m talking about here before posting, I googled “Irenaeus Adam immature suffering wisdom,” and I stumbled across this delightfully lucid and thought-provoking blog series. I’ll post the final installment here but one can use the blog’s “previous” button to track back to earlier installments:
Irenaeus of Lyon: Adam, Christ, and the Christian Life (Part 5) – Resurrecting Orthodoxy.