Original Sin

HISTORY:
Augustine was the first theologian to suggest that because of Adam, all inherit his guilt from which they need salvation.

Prior, in the latin father's writings, the explanations given for the inherited sin nature were "ontological" (philosophical ideas of inheritance) or else "biological" (Hilary of Poitiers suggested a chromosomal-type of inheritance of sin nature).

In the eastern father's writings, they explained Adam's sin as resulting in physical death and a weakened moral will. Gregory of Nyssa was the first to use the term "original sin."

Augustine was the first church father to connect inherited sin nature with individual sin. Not a single church father wrote of original sin being more than "culpac" -- the sinful nature. He used the word "reatus," meaning the legal punishment of a lawbreaker, 69 times in context of original sin in his famous arguments with Pelagius.

He proposed his theology out of David's confession of being "conceived in sin" in Psalm 50, and also from Romans 5:12 "So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned." In the class I took recently, it was explained that his scriptures were the first latin translation in the third century of the greek New Testament. In doing some background research I discovered a professor of the University of Oxford, whose focus is latin and intellectual history, summarizing Augustine's use of the old latin bible in the exact manner taught me in class:

Ambrosiaster, commenting on Romans 5:12, which ends, in the Authorized Version's translation of the Greek construction, '...for that all have sinned', used instead the Old Latin Bible, which read 'in quo omnes peccaverunt', 'in whom [i.e. Adam] all have sinned' (my italics). This reading, also preserved in the Vulgate, is nevertheless a mistranslation of the Greek eph' from epi, 'inasmuch, because'. What had been a statement connecting death and sin in a casually ambiguous fashion became the statement that all had sinned in Adam, the fulcrum text for those who wished to argue for the biological transmission of original sin ('traducianism'), or for the seminal presence of all mankind in Adam's loins. This did not mean, however, that pointing out the error disposed of the doctrine, as ethical convictions are based on deeper foundations than chance mistranslations. Augustine, for instance, would alter argue for the seminal identity of all mankind in Adam on the reasoning that while Adam was made from the dust, which is something different from flesh, all his progeny were made from flesh, and therefore all creation was in Adam. {1}

(For future note, I will bother to focus most my contribution of research on the charges which are most crucial in the material I am presenting. In the above case, I even bothered to select a source which showed itself fair in attitude to Augustine's effort.)

Augustine apparently did not always think of "original sin" in such a way. In his writings up to the year 395 A.D., before the conflict with Pelagius, he still wrote of his belief in free will, he still had not incorporated pagan fatalism to his view of sovereignty, nor "lumped sin" from Adam to all men. Pelagius was his contemporary, and Augustine devoted much effort to defend against his ideas, considered heretical. The Pelagians believed absolutely in free will so far to claim there was no further dependence (post-regeneration) upon God's empowerment. Here is a short quote of Pelagian thought on the matter of original sin and free will:

Nothing impossible has been commanded by the God of justice and majesty... Why do we indulge in pointless evasions, advancing the gravity of our own nature as an objection to the one who commands us? No one knows better the true measure of our strength than he who has given it to us nor does anyone understand better how much we are able to do than he who has given us this very capacity of ours to be able; nor has he who is just wished to command anything impossible or he who is good intended to condemn a man for doing what he could not avoid doing. {2}

ONE SOLUTION:
How can we righteously deserve punishment for Adam's sin? Adam doesn't make us eternally damned: all indeed depends on God, but not so that our free will is hindered.

"Culpac" means a tendency to sin, a weakness of the moral will on Adam's descendants. The ability to choose good is not annihilated, not destroyed... just weakened. Inherited sin doesn't remove us from God, only personal sins. We are responsible for our own sins, not our neighbors. Mankind did not lose free will just because of "original sin."

The early church fathers leading to Augustine all believed in "culpac" -- inherited sin nature. "Reatus" (legal punishment of a lawbreaker) was added to culpa only in the writings of Augustine. He speaks of this guilt for which we need regeneration from in his Pelagian writings as if the fallen human nature is the same as sin itself.

IMPLICATIONS:
In closing I want to end with some critical thinking of Augustine's idea of original sin:

In discussing the subject of original sin and the difference between the Biblical and Augustinian viewpoints, a person told me that if it wasn't for the Augustian version they would not have become a Christian. You see it's not possible for some people to "become Christians," as they say, if they have to admit that their guilt is their fault. Some are so "good" in their own eyes that the only way they can think they are guilty is that someone else sinned on their behalf, and thus they are reckoned guilty because of what someone else did, and not what they have been doing. Or, they recognize that they actually sin - but given "total depravity" - it wasn't their fault. And yet they're willing to accept the Augustinian version of "guilt" - a faultless guilt - and be freely forgiven of sins (which by their own account they hadn't actually been responsible for to begin with). {3}

I use this poorly presented quote above because the reasoning is relevant. I struggle with accepting my responsibility in sin in a healthy process. I have also spent many years conversing with a church who gives the impression to be even more out of touch with sin than I am; the Jehovah's Witnesses give a simple answer that Adam is to blame for nearly all quality of sin and corruption implying even at the individual level. There is very little sense I receive that a Savior is needed for personal sins.

For a more modern Augustinian-favoring perspective of original sin, visit Bible.org: Study and Exposition of Romans 5:12-21. Especially helpful is the summarizing paragraph.


{1} Milton and the Idea of the Fall. William Poole, 2005, Cambridge Press; pg. 23.

{2} The Letters of Pelagius and his Followers. B. R. Rees, The Boydell Press; pp. 53-54

{3} The Boston Christian Bible Study Resources