Protology

And hence the progress of the history of salvation is the progress of protology in the progressive development of its starting-point.

Source: wiktionary

The Chalcedonian defender of thoroughgoing aphtharsia, driven into a corner, now seeks refuge in protology, that is, in referring to the original condition of Adam in Paradise, with whom he compares Christ.

Source: wiktionary

Our task, in what must necessarily be a longer section than those previous, will be first to explore the eschatological dimension of the protological image, then to show how these dual dimensions of protology and eschatology ground Irenaeus' focus on history and salvation as 'recapitulation'.

Source: wiktionary

Or, alternatively, perhaps they are the first human beings as described in tribal protologies.

Source: wiktionary