I am delighted to finally see some references on the putative teachings of the EOC on original sin.
forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=10879689&postcount=322
Romanides and his followers represent a stream of though that does exist in the EOC. However I had posted - in other threads - links to writings of Orthodox clergy, including catechisms of the Orthodox church, that parallel CC teachings to near identity.
Here is one that I repost because it also directly contradicts the specious idea of Westerners mistranslating the Greek.
forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=10843166&postcount=4
Here is an illuminating read by an Orthodox writer. I don’t agree with all of it, or his other writings, but it is worth the read. (And btw there are plenty of Orthodox writings on line that correct Romanides wrong attacks on Augustine.)
orthodoxchristianbooks.com/articles/278/metropolitan-ephraim-original-sin/
He destroys the idea - apart from semantics - that there was no consideration of the transmission of the “sin” of Adam in the early Patristic writings - or that the consequences of the fall were limited to death and disease. Instead, like the CC, the traditional Orthodoxy, in contrast to this “revolution in theology” of Romanides, is clear about the ontological deficit incurred by the descendents of Adam - what the RCC would call the loss of sanctifying grace or the
stain of original sin. This deficit is changed through Baptism - notwithstanding the fact that other consequences of the sin remain. (This sense is also reflected in discussions in the East of infant Baptism, and led St. Gregory of Nyssa to first consider what in the West bacame known as “Limbo”.)
The article goes off the track in the discussion of the IC, For some reason there is an odd blind spot to what is meant by the idea of
stain of original sin. This passage from the Catholic Encyclopedia - written at about the same time as the promulgation of the IC - states the idea clearly.
With this correction, the only issue is whether this singular re-orientation and infusion of grace occurred at conception, or later in the life of the Theotokos. Annunciation is really too late to be taken seriously, in light, for example of the Orthodoxy hymnography at the Entrance. But this strikes me as something of a detail. I look back with gratitude for the definition of the IC, which had the effect - after centuries of odd science mixing with theology - of making the clarifying the point the creation of a creature with a soul, LIfe begins at conception. I think it helped us in the CC be steadfast against the great moral failure of our time.
