While I am not a chr*stian, it is quite maddening that the “unchanging” Catholic Church used to believe the “first Adam” was a real as the “second Adam,” but now the “first Adam” was merely a literary form.
That's completely false and you bear false witness when you repeat it.
Are you sure you aren't thinking of "Billy Bob's Glory Barn?"
As I noted to arrogantbustard above, whatever "Adam" the Catholic Church believes in is a theoretical first human being, not the individual who was created on the Sixth Day and died at the age of 930. That's just a "literary convention."
Besided--don't you know that people can't live that long?
No, Adam is not a theoretical first human, he is the real first human. Not a literary device, a real person.
The same one talked about in the Bible. In allegory.
Nope, he really existed, therefore he's not theoretical.
No amount of quibbling over details can convert a real person into a theoretical person.