Evil and Guilt: on Original Sin and Ancestral Sin

Abstract

Since the times of Augustine, there has been a philosophical and theological debate on the inheritance of guilt on the interpretation of Original Sin. This debate turns on the early Church Fathers of the first centuries, signalled by the Neo-Patristic movement within the Orthodox Church in its accusations of heresy against the Catholic Church and proposing the very different notion of "Ancestral Sin". This paper will evaluate this debate and discuss the history of the Church Fathers, especially Augustine, and  propose a new interpretation of the notion of "Original Sin" that offers an understanding of the nature of human beings and their relationship to evil without assuming the notion of the inheritance of guilt for the sin of Adam and Eve.