Doctrine Of Original Sin Research Articles

인간 행위에서 정념의 위상과 기능: 중세 그리스도교적 맥락

This article is a study to explore the theory of passion in Thomas Aquinas’s Moral Theology from a pedagogical perspective. Aquinas’s discussion on the passions is an advantageous position in examining how the philosophical discussion on the passions that started in ancient times developed in the medieval Christian context. As a matter of fact, on the one hand, his discussion can be seen as representing the tradition of medieval Christianity as it is based on the Bible and the thoughts of the Church Fathers, and on the other hand, it can be seen as reflecting discussion of ancient philosophy as it is based on Aristotle’s discussions of metaphysics and ethics. 
 To this end, first, the view on human nature was confirmed through the doctrine of original sin regarding the origin of sins as the context in which passion was dealt with in medieval Christianity. Next, the study attempted to examine the practical impact of the theoretical discussion on passion through the doctrine of capital sins regarding the aspects of sins on the moral life of medieval people, especially through the ascetic life of the monastic system. According to Aquinas, original sin corresponds to the sin of human nature, and it is not simply due to the disorderly action of a single element called passion. The privation of original justice, whereby the will was made subject to God, is the formal element in original sin; while every other disorder of the soul’s powers, is a kind of material element in respect of original sin. On the other hand, cardinal sins correspond to the sin of an individual personality, and it can be defined as a disorder that appears in relation to the good pursued by certain areas of human nature. These doctrines can be seen not only as an understanding and explanation of human existence, but also as directing educational practice regarding moral life, and rather, they can be seen as being justified by educational practice. Passion can become materials for sin and vice but at the same time, it can also become materials for ethical virtues through its interaction with reason. We are given educational tasks to continuously ethically explore the meaning of goodness and to form habits of virtue.

The Doctrine of Original Sin and its Influence on the Theology and Practice of Baptism

Abstract In the 20th century, both in the East, but mostly in the West, a genuine movement of patristic and liturgical renewal took shape, aiming to establish as to what degree the theological discourse and the liturgical life of the Church today corresponds to the spirit and the practice of the Church of the first centuries. In this spirit, the question was often asked if the generalization of infant baptism in the West (5th century), but also in the East (6th century), was influenced by the theory of “original sin” and the Augustinian “bogeyman” concerning the inevitable condemnation to hell of all who die unbaptized. In his book “Of Water and the Spirit”, Father Alexander Schmemann briefly touches, but does not fully develop the subject, and fails to reach any clear conclusions. In the current study we tried, as much as was possible, to follow the roots and dogmatical consequences of this theory, and also to discern its ensuing consequences on baptismal rites and texts, as well as other practical and canonical implications, like the importance of baptismal immersion.

“The Melancholy Dames”: Soren Kierkegaard’s Despairing Women and Wesley’s Empowering Cure

This article will bring together the work of Soren Kierkegaard and John Wesley for the purpose of showing the relevance of their theologies for the empowerment of women. The particular focus will be on the doctrine of original sin. The paper will first address the question of why Augustine’s novel doctrine became the orthodox position and why his construction restricts its applicability to women. It will then move to Soren Kierkegaard’s understanding of anxiety and despair in his treatise, The Sickness Unto Death. In the theology of Soren Kierkegaard, there is room to interpret his understanding of original sin as “gendered”. For him, despair is the counterpart of original sin. It finds two forms: 1. despair is willing to be a self apart from the Power (God) that constitutes the self, and 2. despair is not willing to be a self at all. Feminists have questioned the legitimacy of original sin in its traditional form, and a few have even used Kierkegaard on the way to offering an alternative to pride. One method used here is to explicate this insight further. Another method is to put Kierkegaard and John Wesley in dialogue for the purpose of imagining selfhood for women more hopefully. If “despair” can be imagined as a wounding of the self, Wesley’s therapeutic model—seeing original sin as a disease and sanctification as its cure—has much to offer the conversation on personhood and empowered subjectivity, particularly for women. The primary research question investigated here is how a conversation between feminism, Kierkegaard, and Wesley offers an alternative to Augustine’s “orthodoxy” without rendering the idea of original sin completely untenable and useless for women within Christianity. Even though Wesley’s curative paradigm has been highlighted in more recent years, its particular strength to speak into the lives of those who do not/cannot will to be a self has perhaps yet to be fully mined. It reveals itself in the entire Wesleyan history of affirming women. However, the author believes the potential power of Wesley’s theology can be further unleashed by examining its mechanism’s in countering “female despair”.

Foucault and Agamben on Augustine, Paradise and the Politics of Human Nature

This article focuses on Foucault’s and Agamben’s readings of Augustine’s account of human nature and original sin. Foucault’s analysis of Augustine’s account of sexual acts in paradise, subordinated to will and devoid of lust, highlights the way it constitutes the model for the married couple, whose sexual acts are only acceptable if diverted by the will away from desire and towards the tasks of procreation. While Agamben rejects Augustine’s doctrine of original sin and reclaims paradise as the original homeland of humanity, his reappropriation of paradise remains conditioned by our turn towards our true nature, from which we have been estranged by sin. Agamben’s politics of reclaiming paradise necessarily involves the demand for obedience to this originary model of human nature. It therefore follows to the letter Augustine’s description of paradisiacal sex, in which the will prevails over desire by applying itself to and curtailing itself.

The Nirvana Controversy: A Comparison of the Pelagian Controversy and Buddhist Views of Liberation

abstract: The debate between St. Augustine of Hippo and the British monk Pelagius is a famous event in the history of Christianity. While Pelagius emphasized the idea that we could achieve salvation via our own free effort, Augustine argued for the opposite: That due to original sin, humans are unable to reach liberation alone and must be saved by God's grace. Augustine won the debate, and the doctrine of original sin became a key theological cornerstone of Western Christianity. What is less well known is that two philosophical positions within the Buddhist tradition corresponded to this debate. One from the Buddha Shakyamuni himself, who taught that all could attain nirvana freely, and one from the medieval Japanese monk and philosopher Shinran, who, disagreeing with his master, taught that we live in a fallen era. We are unable to achieve enlightenment ourselves and thus must rely on the saving grace of Amida Buddha to transport us to a place where the goal is achievable. This paper seeks to highlight these similarities between these two debates and, in the process, show that the philosophical issue of free will versus determinism is one that crosses the boundaries of Eastern and Western thought. It is hoped that the revelation of such a shared debate will increase understanding between Christianity and Buddhism, as well as between other diverse traditions of thought.

How St. Augustine Could Love the God in Whom He Believed

St. Augustine, pictured by Western painters holding in his hand his heart blazing with passionate love, consistently and repeatedly insisted―from his earliest writings until close to his death―that the essential characteristic of God is “God is love” (1 John 4:16). Yet he also insisted on the doctrines of original sin and everlasting punishment for the massa damnata. This article will not explore the rationale or semantics of his arguments, nor the detail and nuance of the doctrines of predestination and perseverance. Rather, I seek to understand, from Augustine’s last writings, how he reconciled his strong conviction that God is love with doctrines requiring belief in a God who determined the fate of individuals to eternal reward or punishment “before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4), a God indifferent to individuals’ actions, struggles, or longings. My primary interest is not on Augustine’s ability to render these two apparently opposing ideas of God intellectually compatible, but rather on his feeling, gathered from his last sermons, as he approached death. In brief, how could Augustine love the God in whom he believed?

Die Entstehung der ungarischen traditionellen Theologie

Abstract This study seeks to explore the origin and formation of the so called “Hungarian traditional” theology within the Reformed Church of Hungary from the 1840s till the 1860s. The research paper also throws light on how the new orthodoxy movement of Debrecen grew out of this trend from the 1870s which had an enormous impact on the Protestant theological landscape of Hungary, the largest Protestant community in Central Europe. Hungarian new orthodoxy precedes both the orthodoxy developed by Kuyper and the Barthian neoortodoxy which is a much later theological trend. It also points out that Western European Protestant theological trends did have a great impact on the Hungarian theological context. This work aims to demonstrate how the doctrinal views of Hungarian traditional theology were developed through the works and life of selected influential leaders like Imre Révész senior, Lajos Filó, József Heiszler while debating with liberal theology. Reference will be made to the foreign impact of conservative theologies represented by evangelical, Pietist and mediating theologies of Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Britain. The doctrinal debates appeared in contemporary journals. Analysing the texts, it is possible to delineate what the stance of traditional theology was about: inspiration of the Scripture, the uniqueness of Revelation, the doctrine of original sin, the necessity of atonement, deity of Jesus Christ, the confession of Trinity, faith in the last judgement and Christ’s second return and the reality of miracles.

The Akan and the Catholic Concept of Sin and Reconciliation Compared

The phenomenon of sin and reconciliation is extant in many religions and as a result, elaborate teachings and rituals are documented around them. The same however cannot be said about the Akan traditional religion. This can be due to the no or late documentation of the theology of the African traditional religion. The problem created is that the Akan perception of sin and its removal in particular and the African Traditional Religion, in general, is often seen as lacking authenticity. This article with the help of comparative theology examines the Akan concept of sin and reconciliation and elucidates how they share some similarities with the Catholic doctrine on sin and reconciliation. The authors used the literary approach and questionnaires to gather data. Twenty (20) Catholic priests in the Catholic Archdiocese of Kumasi were purposively selected to answer eleven questionnaire items on the similarities between the Catholic and the Akan theology of sin and reconciliation. The findings and discussions on the problem elucidate that, the two religious traditions have a doctrine of original sin. They conceptualize sin as a stain, that sin offends God and humanity. Sin is moreover, categorized into serious and less serious offenses. They also agree that contrition, confession and penance are necessary conditions for the forgiveness of sins. Reconciliation again they concur restores the penitent to full communion with the divine and humanity. The article recommends that the Akan concept of original sin which is sketchy must be developed further. It also advocates that integrating the Akan and Catholic concepts of sin and reconciliation in the education of Akan Christians and pastoral agents would be a good enterprise. The paper fills the vacuum created that the Akan has a poor notion of sin and reconciliation. It shows evidence of the Akan concepts of sin and reconciliation, which are comparable to the teachings of the Catholic Church on sin and its removal. Keywords: Sin, Reconciliation, Akan, Catholic

The Maturational Naturalness of Original Sin

A doctrine of original sin or of the human condition generally requires an account of how that sin or condition is transmitted. One would think there are two options for thinking about this. Either original sin is innate or it is acquired. Both would seem to be problematic, the former because all the available options involve untoward metaphysical commitments or implicate God in unacceptable ways; the latter because of the uniformity of the human condition the doctrine requires. In this article, I use conceptual advances within the cognitive science of religion and empirical research to advance a plausible model of what the human condition consists in and how it is passed down.

Political Realism in St Augustine of Hippo’s Theology of Original Sin: Some Practical Considerations

The problem of evil has preoccupied religious and secular discussions for centuries. All religions of the world have tried to proffer explanations of how evil came into the world and whether human beings are evil by nature or by imitation. Modern Political realism has waded into the discussion with the assertion that human beings inherited selfishness, pride, egocentricity from their first parents. Some proponents of political realism find justification in the Judeo-Christian theology of St Augustine of Hippo whose theology of Original sin traces the origins of evil to Adam’s sin. This paper seeks to establish the relationship between modern political realism and St Augustine’s theology of Original sin. Using a historical-critical and hermeneutic approach, the article argues that the evil committed by political realists cannot be justified through St Augustine’s theology of Original sin. It further asserts that rather than having a limiting effect, the doctrine of Original sin can be a liberating notion. Consequently, the study concludes that the moral evil of selfishness exuded by politicians stems not from human beings’ nature as free human beings but from their nurture and maybe changeable by recourse to the doctrine of Original sin. Keywords: Realism, Original sin, evil, Augustine

Т.С. Элиот и чувство истории

Eliot’s deep interest in ideas about history began early and continued throughout his life. In his student days, he encountered the concepts of human pre-history put forward by early anthropologists such as Emile Durkheim and Lucien Lévy-Bruhl. He studied under Josiah Royce and George Santayana, was aware of the historical writing of his distant relative Henry Adams. The paper also dwells at some length on Eliot’s attitude to the “Whig historians” and the Criterion-group historians. As Eliot entered the Christian fold, his idea of history became that of the Bible and the Church. He followed St. Augustine, was deeply influenced by the British Catholic historian Christopher Dawson. As a Christian, Eliot rejected both progressive and regressive views of history as well as determinism in favor of a belief in free will, the doctrine of Original Sin and faith in Providence. Eliot’s views involve a challenge to the secular view of history, and his key terms are based on his Christian vision: the “historical sense”, in the meaning of awareness of “tradition”, which carries the truths of Revelation and the wisdom of the ages forward in time, adapting them somewhat to various times and cultures but remaining faithful to the essential truths, the “permanent things.”

죄는 유전되는가?: 진화와 원죄에 대한 프레드릭 테넌트의 논의

Evolutionary theory questioned Adam’s historicity, his Fall, and the doctrine of original sin. Frederick Tennant was a pioneering theologian who, accepting the achievement of natural science, sought to provide a new explanation for the origin of sin. He found it inappropriate to give a moral judgement on the animal nature of human beings which was the result of the evolutionary process. According to him, committing sin is not the necessary consequence of the corrupted human nature, but sin happens becuase the moral consciousness, which gradually appears in human experience, fails to animal instincts. What Tennant sought was not the destruction of the Christian faith, but the rebuilding of the Christian knowledge in accordance with the modern academic achievement. He emphasised that his theory was not connected with the fundamental contents of the Christian faith, because apart from the question of sin’s origin, the universality of actual sin is the sufficient basis of the gospel of redemption. Tennant’s view reminds that human knowledge of the revelation progresses as that of the world does.

Original Sin: The New Scientific Context as Challenge and Opportunity

ABSTRACT The doctrine of original sin serves as a major challenge to apologetic theological reflection. The challenge is more demanding in times of the widespread scientific worldview, which renders biblical accounts on human evil less credible and questions the rationalization efforts produced by ancient and medieval theology. Recent developments in scientific anthropology offer a chance to better approach human negativity. So far, theologians have tried in the last years to apply those advances to update that doctrine, although not to the point which could lessen its mystery. Original sin expresses a general state of human frailty, whose origins escape scientific analysis.

Revisiting the Somatic Death Objection to Penal Substitution: Original Sin and the Nature of Consequences

In an essay titled ‘The Logic of Reparative Substitution: Contemporary Restitution Models of Atonement, Divine Justice, and Somatic Death,’ Joshua Farris and S. Mark Hamilton articulate a largely ignored objection to the penal substitutionary atonement theory: the Somatic Death Objection. In this essay I respond to Farris and Hamilton’s Somatic Death Objection by appealing to the doctrine of original sin and the distinction between, what I call, mere consequences and penal consequences. I begin by defining the model in question: Penal Substitutionary Atonement. I then examine the Somatic Death Objection as Farris and Hamilton articulate it. Having done this, I provide two eschatologically based responses to the objection but argue that these responses are found wanting for various reasons. Finally, I turn to the doctrine of original sin and the distinction between mere consequences and penal consequences to argue that the Somatic Death Objection need not undermine penal substitution.

Original Sin vs. Original Grace: The Adamic Fall and the Primordial Covenant

ABSTRACT The Christian doctrine of original sin—a corollary of the initial Adamic transgression—is the linchpin of the soteriological and eschatological significance of Christ. Construction of a binary opposition between the fall through Adam and redemption through Christ seems pleasing in its symmetry, yet the question of children who die in infancy poses a problem. This article considers the historical positions on this issue and compares them with the Islamic conception of original grace—a state of innate innocence due to the primordial covenant in which all souls attest to the lordship of God before birth. It then uses this concept to shed light on the fate of infants who die before reaching maturity.

Graça e heteronímia na antropologia relational de Agostinho de Hipona

This article will discuss Augustine of Hippo’s (354-430) relational horizon with a focus on grace and heteronomy in Confessions and in the Pelagian controversy. Grace and heteronomy are inserted biographically in Confessions, through an autobiographical narrative as a testimony of grace. Subsequently, grace and heteronomy would be endorsed in the polemic against the Pelagians, in which Augustine reaffirms his doctrine of original sin and the solidarity of the race in Adam, and the human need for the grace of Christ. Augustine’s anthropological perspective questions a self-centered understanding of human autonomy and emphasizes its dependence upon a relational horizon. A synthesis will be expressed through three axes: (i) heteronomy as an expression of a dramatic anthropology of search and encounter (ii) authentic autonomy as built upon the foundation of heteronomy, and therefore not opposed to human responsiveness (iii) heteronomy does not deny uniqueness or singularity butrecognizes it within a responsive relational horizon.

Geoffrey Hill’s Poetic Incarnational Theology

Abstract Geoffrey Hill’s poems are saturated with the cluttered bleakness of the nihilistic view of the natural world, but in Hill’s own Christian incarnational theology it is precisely this filthy world into which Christ was incarnated in order to redeem humans from Original Sin. Fortified with but also rattled by the Incarnation and the doctrine of Original Sin, in his poems Hill is faced with the profound, agonizing existential choice to embrace Christ or reject Christianity as a farce, and it is this perilous pose that serves as the theological grounding of the oeuvre the man who now, sadly, was the greatest contemporary Christian poet.

A Comperative Study: Original Sin on The View Between Augustine and Neo-Plaonism

The doctrine of Original Sin has been debated for centuries among the Theologians includeAugustine. The Understanding of doctrine original sin as a theological term started from theteaching of Augustine around 5century B.C. Augustine‗s understanding regarding original sinderived from his problem and his question concerning the life of Adam and Eve, andparticularly in his youth experiences of adultery. He believed that all men involved inAdam‘s first sin and original sin was transmitted through the parents to their children.Augustine learned Manichaeism, however, he did not satisfied and then he went to learnedNeo-Platonism and deeply impressed to him both for his Neo-Platonism and the Christianlife. In Neo-Platonism, Augustine respect and received the Plotinus views. For NeoPlatonism, the root of sin is discovered in the very nature of the soul and in relation to thebody as self- isolation. Before it enters the body, the soul has a prior existence. When thesouls fall and that is how it comes to be in the body. But the point is that the soul has anunruly and evil nature in its irrational parts even before it enters the body so that it in onesense the cause of evil is present even in the soul preexistence state. Neo-Platonist believedthat original sin is transmitted from one to another, Neo-Platonism underscored this notion bysuggesting that in addition to such a transmission of evil, human souls would reappear viatransmigration, bringing to the new body their earlier errors and judgments of value.Therefore, this study is to analyze and to compare Augustine‘s view as a theologian of theoriginal sin with the Neo-Platonism concept.

On Behalf of Augustinian Realism

The doctrine of Augustinian realism is a way of construing how sin is transmitted in the doctrine of original sin that has fallen out of fashion in recent dogmatics. In this article, I attempt to say something on its behalf. I give an account of the doctrine, drawing on the work of several nineteenth-century systematic theologians. I then address several standard objections to the doctrine and argue that it has the conceptual resources to meet these worries. This is not to say that the doctrine is without problems; but it does give some reason for thinking that it is better resourced and worthy of more serious attention than it has received of late.

Developmental psychologies in the Roman world: Change and continuity.

A common view among ancient historians about Roman attentiveness to children's psychological development needs reconsideration. The view holds that Romans ignored children's cognitive ontogeny, perceiving early childhood as a largely undifferentiated life stage. A separate but related issue is the problematic claim that Roman childhood was entirely a matter of social construction. I present evidence from over four hundred years of Roman writing to make three points against Roman neglect of children and radical social construction. First, a consensus (granted our limited number of sources) about "developmental psychology" prevailed from the late republic to late antiquity. Second, this consensus is consistent with modern findings and theories. In particular, the Roman material maps onto a developmental timeline featuring a "2-month revolution," when the infant engages in dyadic protoconversations with adults, and a "9-month revolution," when the infant shares attention triadically with adults toward third objects. In the Roman consensus, both dyadic protoconversations and triadic joint attention were central to cultural learning. Third, when the Roman consensus about children's minds did change, it was because of the Christian doctrine of original sin, according to which even newborns were psychologically corrupt. Nonetheless, I argue, this rupture in the Roman consensus does not entail that we should suppose childhood to have been entirely a social construction or merely a projection of a religious or other ideology. Rather, any construction of childhood-even the late-antique Christian one-will necessarily rest upon a foundation of, and thus be constrained by, certain inescapable biological and psychological "givens." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).