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Original Sin
Original Sin. In Christian theology, the state of sin in which mankind has been captive since the Fall (q.v.). The scriptural foundation of the doctrine is the Pauline teaching that ‘through one man [i.e. Adam] sin entered into the world’, so that ‘by the trespass of the one many died’ (cf. Rom. 5: 12–21 and 1 Cor. 15: 22). St Irenaeus began to develop the doctrine in his struggle against the Gnostics, defending the teaching that evil came into the world through the sin of Adam, as against the dualist systems of the heretics. The Greek Fathers generally emphasized the cosmic dimensions of the Fall—since Adam men are born into a fallen world—but at the same time they held fast to the belief that man, though fallen, is free. The precise formulation of the doctrine was left to the W. Here Tertullian, St Cyprian, and St Ambrose taught the solidarity of the whole race with Adam not only in the consequences of the sin but in the sin itself, which is transmitted through natural generation. Beyond this two schools of thought developed. St Augustine and his followers maintained that Adam's guilt was transmitted to his descendants by concupiscence, making of humanity a massa damnata and much enfeebling, though not destroying, the freedom of the will. St Anselm separated Original Sin from concupiscence; he defined it as ‘the privation of the righteousness which every man ought to possess’ and held that it was transmitted by generation, since the whole human race was present in Adam seminaliter. St Thomas Aquinas distinguished, in the state of Adam before the Fall, ‘pure nature’ from the supernatural gifts which perfected it. Hence Original Sin consists in the loss of those supernatural privileges which had directed man to his supernatural end and enabled him to keep his inferior powers in submission to reason. This conception leaves to the reason, will, and passions of fallen man their natural powers. According to Aquinas, Original Sin is transmitted not as the personal fault of Adam but as a state of human nature, yet constituting a fault inasmuch as all men are regarded as one great organism of which Adam was the first mover. The instrument of transmission is generation, regardless of the accompanying concupiscence.
In the 16th cent., both M. Luther and J. Calvin again equated Original Sin with concupiscence and affirmed that it destroyed liberty and persisted after Baptism. D. Soto, on the other hand, in restating the doctrine of Aquinas eliminated the element of concupiscence from the definition altogether and identified Original Sin with the loss of sanctifying grace; his views were widely influential in the RC Church, though the Jansenists inclined towards the old Augustinian pessimism. From the 18th cent. the dogma of Original Sin was attenuated by the Enlightenment's confidence in human progress and belief in evolution, but in some form it persisted and was strongly reaffirmed in the 20th cent. by K. Barth and his followers. Modern treatments of Original Sin tend to regard it as belonging to the nature of man rather than to the individual person; they derive it less from heredity than from the social character of man. |
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E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Original Sin." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Original Sin." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-OriginalSin.html E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Original Sin." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-OriginalSin.html |
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Original sin
Original sin. In Christian theology the state of sin into which everyone is born as a result of the fall of Adam. The basis of this in the Bible is Paul's teaching that ‘through one man [Adam] sin entered the world’, so that ‘by the trespass of the one the many died’ (Romans 5. 12). It was developed by the early Greek fathers, but became most precise in Latin writers of the 2nd–5th cents., culminating in Augustine's formulation. According to this, Adam's sin has been transmitted from parent to child ever since. The human race has thus become a ‘lump of sin’ (massa damnata). In the Pelagian controversy Augustine's view prevailed, although his extreme views were not adopted in the East. Since the 18th cent. the influence of Old Testament criticism, combined with natural science, has changed the emphasis to one of describing human inability to rescue itself from its condition out of its own strength or resources: genetic endowments, combined with social, cultural and historical circumstances, precede the birth of all individuals and are not chosen by them; yet they form both character and action in ways that are inevitably disordered.
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JOHN BOWKER. "Original sin." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN BOWKER. "Original sin." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-Originalsin.html JOHN BOWKER. "Original sin." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-Originalsin.html |
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original sin
original sin in Christian theology, the sin of Adam , by which all humankind fell from divine grace . Saint Augustine was the fundamental theologian in the formulation of this doctrine, which states that the essentially graceless nature of humanity requires redemption to save it. The purpose of baptism is to wash away original sin and to restore the individual to an innocent state, although even after baptism a tendency to sin remains as a result of original sin. |
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"original sin." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "original sin." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-original.html "original sin." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-original.html |
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original sin
original sin Sin committed by Adam and Eve for which they were expelled from the Garden of Eden and were made mortal (Genesis 3). The sin was their eating, against God's strict instructions, from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve's guilt was deemed to have been passed down to their descendants through all the generations.
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"original sin." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "original sin." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-originalsin.html "original sin." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-originalsin.html |
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original sin
original sin the tendency to evil supposedly innate in all human beings, held to be inherited from Adam in consequence of the Fall. The concept of original sin was established by the writings of St Augustine and the view of some early theologians that the human will is capable of good without the help of divine grace was branded a heresy.
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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "original sin." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "original sin." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-originalsin.html ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "original sin." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-originalsin.html |
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original sin
o·rig·i·nal sin • n. Christian Theol. the tendency to sin innate in all human beings, held to be inherited from Adam in consequence of the Fall. The concept of original sin was developed in the writings of St. Augustine. |
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"original sin." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "original sin." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-originalsin.html "original sin." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-originalsin.html |
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Original Sin
Original SinSee Evil and Suffering; Fall; Sin |
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"Original Sin." Encyclopedia of Science and Religion. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Original Sin." Encyclopedia of Science and Religion. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404200375.html "Original Sin." Encyclopedia of Science and Religion. 2003. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404200375.html |
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