ON ORIGINAL SIN...

NB: The following article being of interest to Catholics as well as Orthodox, is replicated also in the INDEX of articles pertaining to Catholic Doctrine Issues.

There is no doctrine more important for "moderns" to grasp than the Church's doctrine on Original Sin. A number of Catholic writers have noted how American culture is contaminated by the ancient heresy of the British or Irish monk Pelagius (d. after AD 418), which was vigorously opposed by St. Augustine and condemned by local Western councils and then by the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (AD 431).

Pelagius and his followers did not admit the existence of Original Sin and denied the need of Baptism for the remission of it. For these innovators the mortality of Adam and his being subject to all the miseries of life were not the result of any Original Sin. When Adam sinned he did harm to himself alone; his descendants did not contract any sin in their coming into this world. Children had no need of Baptism in order to be cleansed from any hereditary stain to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, which, strangely, was distinct from Life Eternal.

Moreover, man's natural powers and his free will were enough to keep the natural law, overcome all temptations, and observe God's Commandments. Since there was no Original Sin, there was no fallen human nature needing Baptism's supernatural cleansing from all sin, original or personal. The natural man is exalted, his efforts and works glorified.

It has often been observed that all too many Americans are naturally Pelagians. It was G.K. Chesterton who noted in his book "Orthodoxy" (exaggerating somewhat the power of human reason) that:

"Certain new theologians dispute Original Sin, which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved… They essentially deny human sin, which they can see in the street."

The outright denial or ignoring of the existence of Original Sin or various distortions of the doctrine (as found among Protestants of a Calvinist persuasion who postulate the complete corruption of human nature) lead to serious consequences. As one Episcopalian rector recently observed:

"The tendency in today's Episcopal Church to ignore Original Sin has resulted in lauding the sacrament of Baptism while denying the need for it at the same time as they give holy communion to the unbaptized.”

Among Catholics, 50 years of poor catechesis and accommodation to the New Age spirituality of "You're OK, I'm OK; God's OK" has led to the Baptism of many Catholic children being unnecessarily delayed or neglected. In many parishes, canon ¶867 stating that "parents are obliged to see to it that infants are baptized within the first weeks after birth", appears to result in little urgency.

There has also been the sorry influence on Catholics of modern liberalism's optimistic notion of man's achieving moral and social perfection and perfect happiness through material well-being. In its naturalistic perspective, man is not fallen; he is born good, and finds happiness in satisfying the inclinations of his nature. The Catholic Church has defined clearly what is meant by Original Sin. The "Credo of the People of God" issued by Pope Paul VI to strengthen the faith of Catholics amidst the post-conciliar crisis, declares:

"We believe that in Adam all have sinned, which means that the original offense committed by him caused human nature, common to all men, to fall to a state in which it bears the consequences of that offense, and which is not the state in which it was at first in our first parents, established as they were in holiness and justice and in which man knew neither evil nor death. It is human nature so fallen, stripped of the grace that clothed it, injured in its own natural powers and subjected to the dominion of death, that is transmitted to all men, and it is in this sense that every man is born in sin. We therefore hold, with the Council of Trent, that Original Sin is transmitted with human nature, 'not by imitation but by propagation,' and that it is thus 'proper to everyone'".
(n. 16)

The formula "by imitation" clearly refers to the Pelagian error that it was Adam's bad example of disobedience that provoked others to imitate him in sinning. The words "not by imitation" emphasize that Original Sin is transmitted to us by the reception of human nature antecedently to all personal acts.

The essence of Original Sin in which all have shared (excepting our Lord and His Immaculate Mother) lies in Adam's loss of sanctifying or divinizing grace resulting in a guilty state or sinful condition of human nature, not a guilty act that we ourselves have personally committed. For Catholics it is clear, as St. Augustine stressed, that Adam transmitted to his descendants a sin which is the "death of the soul." All Adam's descendants share in his guilt insofar as they are born deprived of sanctifying grace, i.e., the holiness and justice of God, and thus are in a state of sin. We are sinners even before we commit our own personal sins.

It is sad to see even some Eastern Orthodox deviate from ancient Tradition to engage in a caricature of Catholic doctrine. They, too, like many Protestants, mistakenly understand the sense of "inherited guilt" as meaning Adam's descendants bear personal culpability for Adam's tragic transgression. In an article in "The SWORD", an interesting Wisconsin publication, a nationally known Eastern Orthodox writer, Frederica Matthewes-Green, repeats the error of such noted theologians as Jean Meyendorff and Metropolitan Kallistos of Diocleia who deny the "inherited guilt" of Original Sin and confine the meaning of Original Sin merely to the consequences of "Adam's corruption and mortality."

Whereas these Orthodox writers hold correctly that Adam's sin resulted in such effects as ignorance, pain, and suffering, concupiscence (the inclination to sin), and bodily death, they ignore the revealed truth that it was an actual sinful condition or state which was transmitted to all his progeny. In doing so, they find themselves contradicting various Orthodox Confessions of Faith such as that of Peter Mohila (1640) and that of the Patriarch Dositheos (1672) that agree with defined Catholic doctrine.

Matthewes-Green's statement that the Catholic doctrine on Original Sin "separated Eastern and Western Christians for 1,500 years" is not correct. The early 19thcentury Russian Orthodox theologian Methodios Smirnov in his "On the Differences Between the Eastern and Western Churches" cites no discrepancy between the two Churches on the subject of Original Sin. Since then, however, it is undeniable that a polemic has sadly developed among some Orthodox to establish yet another obstacle to the long-hoped for Reunion of the Churches.

It is thus a common error (it is found even among certain Eastern Catholics influenced by Orthodox theology) to attribute as the view of the "Eastern Church" what are only opinions of some Orthodox theologians alienated from their own tradition. Fortunately, there are Orthodox theologians who are better witnesses to the authentic Eastern tradition. The Greek Orthodox theologian Athanasius S. Frangopoulos has written:

"The saddest and ugliest aspect of Original Sin is its transmission from the first man to his descendants and from generation to generation to the entire human race: a hereditary transmission as a state and sickness of human nature and as a personal guilt of every man… In the person of Adam all his descendants were included and all inherited the sin of Adam and the results of that sin which are guilt, corruption, and the depravity of our nature… and finally death".
("Our Orthodox Christian Faith", Athens, Greece: 1985)

Many other Greek and Russian theologians (past and present) can be quoted to the same effect. It is ironic that the Augustinian view of Original Sin emphasizing the spiritual "death of the soul" ( loss of "the indwelling grace of God") as well as the physical death of the body and taught by the Western Council of Carthage (418) received approval by the Eastern Council of Trullo (692). Considered part of the Sixth Ecumenical Council by today's Eastern Orthodox, the Council of Trullo taught a doctrine of "inherited guilt" obligatory for belief by all those who would be orthodox in faith.

 

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