Original sin and Ancestral sin

[simpleas]

What is the difference between Original sin and Ancestral sin?

Thanks.

 

[Yago]

I read up ancestral sin on wikipedia and came to the conclusion that they were the same.

 

[Hunho]

I read up ancestral sin on wikipedia and came to the conclusion that they were the same.

But I’ve read enough outside of Wikipedia to understand that they are not at all the same!

 

[Yago]

But I’ve read enough outside of Wikipedia to understand that they are not at all the same!

i see. Can you point out the differences?

 

[Stephen_says]

“Ancestral sin” is what the Eastern Orthodox churches call Original Sin. Different words, but semantically the same.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Greek translation of which uses “προπατορική αμαρτία” (literally, “ancestral sin”) where the Latin text has “peccatum originale”, states: “Original sin is called ‘sin’ only in an analogical sense: it is a sin ‘contracted’ and not ‘committed’ - a state and not an act. Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam’s descendants”.[5] And Eastern Orthodox teaching likewise says: "It can be said that while we have not inherited the guilt of Adam’s personal sin, because his sin is also of a generic nature, and because the entire human race is possessed of an essential, ontological unity, we participate in it by virtue of our participation in the human race.

 

[Hunho]

The obvious difference is that the doctrine of Original Sin is a Roman Catholic doctrine while Ancestral Sin belongs to the Orthodox tradition. It took me a while to locate a good short contrast of the two, but I will offer this quote from the article “Original and Ancestral Sin: A Brief Comparison” by Alison Bennett. The article is available at the Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy website.

“The doctrine of original sin as originally articulated by the Roman Catholic Church and later by Protestants is not simply a case of semantics, but an erroneous anthropology resulting from theological reactions and misunderstandings. This doctrine has wide implications for anthropology—sin, grace, free will, baptism, and theosis. How we understand the effects of the Fall directly bears on our soteriology. The Orthodox position on original sin (“ancestral sin”) is that humanity inherited only the consequences of sin from Adam and Eve, rather than their guilt. Baptism restores God’s grace to humans so that we have the ability to overcome sin and death and finish the song of humanity.”

 

[Yago]

Thank you