Original sin: which is it?

[FireFromHeaven]

I’ve heard two main explanations of original sin by Christians. First is that it is a heriditary stain. The second is that it is a corruption inherited by all mankind. Which is it? Is it both? If the former why is it inherited? If the latter why did Adams sin lead to corruption? If both how do they mesh? Thanks for all answers

 

[jjkadavil]

I’ve heard two main explanations of original sin by Christians. First is that it is a heriditary stain. The second is that it is a corruption inherited by all mankind. Which is it? Is it both? If the former why is it inherited? If the latter why did Adams sin lead to corruption? If both how do they mesh? Thanks for all answers

What is the difference between hereditary and inheritance? We get our spirit through our parents and therefore we have original sin.

 

[edwest2]

“… the documents of the teaching authority of the Church proposed with regard to original sin which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam in which through generation is passed onto all and is in everyone as his own” (Humani Generis 37).

“The story of the creation and fall of man is a true one, even if not written entirely according to modern literary techniques. The Catechism states, “The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents” (CCC 390).”

Peace,
Ed

 

[grannymh]

What is the difference between hereditary and inheritance? We get our spirit through our parents and therefore we have original sin.

Are you talking about “spirit” as in spiritual soul?

Catholicism teaches that the spiritual soul is not inherited from our parents.
God, Himself, directly and individually, creates each person’s soul at conception.

 

[grannymh]

I’ve heard two main explanations of original sin by Christians. First is that it is a heriditary stain. The second is that it is a corruption inherited by all mankind. Which is it? Is it both? If the former why is it inherited? If the latter why did Adams sin lead to corruption? If both how do they mesh? Thanks for all answers

There are also a bunch of descriptions/questions for Adam–
Who was he?
What was his nature?
What does innocent mean in reference to Adam?
What was God’s relationship with Adam before the Fall?
Did Adam share in the life of his Creator?
What is the relationship between a creature and a Creator?

When one is looking for the actual teachings of the Catholic Church regarding one original human being and one original sin, one cannot just jump into the middle of the story. One has to start at the beginning.

Answers to the above questions are a basic beginning. Actually, a good answer to a couple of those questions will let you decide for yourself which version in post 1 is the closest to actual Catholic doctrines.

Paragraphs 355-421 of the* Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition*, are very informative.
scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

 

[jjkadavil]

Are you talking about “spirit” as in spiritual soul?

Catholicism teaches that the spiritual soul is not inherited from our parents.
God, Himself, directly and individually, creates each person’s soul at conception.

Where do we read that? Then what we get from our parents is only the body? If God, Himself, directly and individually, creates each person’s soul at conception how can there be original sin? Doesn’t make sense.

 

[TomD123]

Original sin is ultimately a damage of human nature…a damage that caused imperfection, a tendency to sin, ignorance, and lack of grace among other things. These are not genetic per se. However, we do receive our human nature from our parents. this can be traced back to Adam. So this is why we say original sin is contracted from Adam and transmitted via propagation rather than imitation. But it is not as though our souls have genetic info from our parents, this would be ridiculous.

 

[grannymh]

Where do we read that? Then what we get from our parents is only the body? If God, Himself, directly and individually, creates each person’s soul at conception how can there be original sin? Doesn’t make sense.

Our human nature is an unique unification of both our spiritual soul and our material body. Our human nature shares in the image of God precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul. This unity of soul and body is profound. Because of the God created spiritual soul, the body made of matter becomes a living human body at conception. Consequently, there is a whole human person at conception. Yet, the human person is not two natures united, but rather the union of the spiritual and material forms one, single nature.

Being the first human beings, Adam along with his spouse Eve were immediately established in friendship with God, their Creator. They were in the state of original holiness and justice-- which means that they were sharing in the life of God (known today as the state of Sanctifying Grace) and they had harmony within themselves.

Properly speaking, Original Sin is the act of the original human Adam. Adam’s act of scorning his God broke his original relationship of holiness in friendship with God. This changed Adam’s state of being in that his human nature was deprived of original holiness.

Catholicism teaches that the whole of humanity is in Adam “as one body of one man”. (paragraph 404, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition.) Adam’s human nature would be transmitted by propagation to all his descendants: "By this “unity of the human race” all men are implicated in Adam’s sin, as all are implicated in Christ’s justice. St. Paul teaches this in Romans 5: 12-21. Flat out, the *Catechism *says: “Still, the transmission of original sin is a mystery that we cannot fully understand.”

What we know is that “Original Sin” is not a personal fault in any of Adam’s descendants. Our nature begins in the state of deprivation of original holiness, but it is not totally corrupted. The Sacrament of Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ’s grace, removes this state of deprivation and returns us to the state of Sanctifying Grace, God’s presence, original holiness, within us.

Paragraphs 362-366 of the* Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition* explain the soul. Paragraphs 396-409 explain Original Sin.

 

[grannymh]

Original sin is ultimately a damage of human nature…a damage that caused imperfection, a tendency to sin, ignorance, and lack of grace among other things. These are not genetic per se. However, we do receive our human nature from our parents. this can be traced back to Adam. So this is why we say original sin is contracted from Adam and transmitted via propagation rather than imitation. But it is not as though our souls have genetic info from our parents, this would be ridiculous.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The whole subject is interesting to me, though I do not expect to know the answer on this side of Jordan.

I have wondered sometimes whether perhaps our first parents’ perception of being in paradise was the perception of creatures…persons who were in perfect harmony with Providence, rather the way animals are. They don’t have “knowledge of good and evil”. Possibly Adam and Eve’s world was no different from our own. Perhaps they simply perceived it differently. Perhaps even death was, to them, a simple continuity with life, as it is in truth, so that they perceived no difference and therefore “never died”.

At a point, somehow or other, they were given the freedom to decide for themselves whether they would have the ability to decide what they would consider “good” and what they would consider “evil” rather than simply accept Providence as it unfolded itself to them. Would that have involved a DNA change, somehow; a brain chemistry change instead maybe? We don’t know.

We just know they did make that decision, and it affects the way we all think. From babyhood on, we choose to decide for ourselves what we think is “good” and what we think is “evil”, and since we have decided to be able to cut ourselves off from full accord with Providence at will, we often choose poorly.

One person only, we understand, was preserved from that; the Blessed Mother. Was she unable to cross the divide into having the ability to reject Providence, or did she have that ability all along and chose never to cross it? We don’t know.

What we do know is that some of the saints really do seem to have been able to overcome it and return to a primal state in which Providence was fully accepted. How they did that, we don’t know in full. But, as with Ste Therese of Lisieux, who seems to have done well at it, constant practice of going against “choosing” would seem to be a big factor. She called it her “little way”, but it was actually a “big way” since she largely turned her own nature by constantly making herself accept Providence instead of “choosing” to regard this as “good”, and that as “evil” insofar as such things pleased her or did not.

Jesus talked about this some. In Luke’s gospel, He said “Consider the ravens. they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!” Was He exhorting us to do nothing about our next meal expecting God to hand it to us, or was He exhorting us to “not choose” to regard our condition as “good” or “evil”, but to take it as it comes, regarding it all as the Will of God, and thus negating not the “choice” of our first parents to be able to choose, but the consequences having exercised that “choice”? He did not exhort us to never think or to know good from evil as He sees them, but to refrain from inventing our own “good” and “evil”.

 

[FireFromHeaven]

Original sin is ultimately a damage of human nature…a damage that caused imperfection, a tendency to sin, ignorance, and lack of grace among other things. These are not genetic per se. However, we do receive our human nature from our parents. this can be traced back to Adam. So this is why we say original sin is contracted from Adam and transmitted via propagation rather than imitation. But it is not as though our souls have genetic info from our parents, this would be ridiculous.

How do you explain this to non Catholics using natural reason?

 

[TomD123]

How do you explain this to non Catholics using natural reason?

What do you mean?
Since natural reason is not the foundation of the doctrine of original sin I don’t know if that is really possible.

A lot of explaining this to non-Catholics would involve establishing that human nature was not destroyed by Adam and Eve and that human nature is still fundamentally good

 

[FireFromHeaven]

Ok thanks.

 

[jjkadavil]

Our human nature is an unique unification of both our spiritual soul and our material body. Our human nature shares in the image of God precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul. This unity of soul and body is profound. Because of the God created spiritual soul, the body made of matter becomes a living human body at conception. Consequently, there is a whole human person at conception. Yet, the human person is not two natures united, but rather the union of the spiritual and material forms one, single nature.

It is not clear. God gives not only spiritual soul but also the body. He is the provider of everything. As far as I am aware from the what I studied, God gave us our body and soul through our parents. That is why we have original sin. Here you say soul is directly given by God and body by parents. Then I ask again how can there be original sin?

 

[grannymh]

It is not clear. God gives not only spiritual soul but also the body. He is the provider of everything. As far as I am aware from the what I studied, God gave us our body and soul through our parents. That is why we have original sin. Here you say soul is directly given by God and body by parents. Then I ask again how can there be original sin?

My apology. It sounds like you may have a different knowledge of Original Sin from Catholicism. As for the single nature of a human person, please check out post 8 for the Catholic teaching. Thank you.

 

[BklynTony]

“… the documents of the teaching authority of the Church proposed with regard to original sin which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam in which through generation is passed onto all and is in everyone as his own” (Humani Generis 37).

“The story of the creation and fall of man is a true one, even if not written entirely according to modern literary techniques. The Catechism states, “The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents” (CCC 390).”

Peace,
Ed

When we read the CCC it leaves open for the possibility of others explanations than JUST ONE ADAM. Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and many theologians have said that it is the Soul which God creates at the time of of our firsts parents which makes them human and truly unique to Him. I do not believe that since Pope Pius XII made his statement(Humane Genres) of the possibility of evolution but holds on to the ONE ADAM has the Church made a forceful CLEAR statement on the single parent issue. This is not an infallible statement to the best of my knowledge…but I am interested in all comments: Thank you