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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Original Sin

See Evil and Suffering; Fall; Sin