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Original sin

32 bytes removed, 03:52, June 22, 2020
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==Discussion==
In the [[Book of Genesis]], Chapter 3, [[Adam]] and [[Eve]] committed a sin, the ''original sin''. The [[Orthodoxy|Eastern Orthodox]] Church teaches that no one is guilty for the actual sin they committed but rather everyone inherits the consequences of this act; the foremost of this is physical death in this world. This is the reason why the original fathers of the Church over the centuries have preferred the term '''ancestral sin'''. The consequences and penalties of this ancestral act are transferred by means of natural heredity to the entire human race. Since every human is a descendant of Adam then 'no one is free from the implications of this sin' (which is human death) and that the only way to be freed from this is through baptism. While mortality is certainly a result of the Fall, along with this also what is termed "concupiscence" in the writings of St [[Augustine of Hippo]] -- this is the "evil impulse" of Judaism, and in Orthodoxy, we might say this is our "disordered passion." It isn't only that we are born in death, or in a state of distance from God, but also that we are born with disordered passion within us. Orthodoxy would not describe the human state as one of "total depravity." (see [[Cyril Lucaris]] however).
Orthodox Christians have usually understood [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholicism]] as professing St. Augustine's teaching that everyone bears not only the consequence, but also the guilt, of Adam's sin. This teaching appears to have been confirmed by multiple councils, the first of them being the [[w:Councils of Orange|Council of Orange]] in 529. This difference between the two [[Church]]es in their understanding of the original sin was one of the doctrinal reasons underlying the Catholic Church's declaration of its [[dogma]] of the [[Immaculate Conception]] in the 19th century, a dogma that is rejected by the Orthodox Church. However, contemporary [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic teaching]] is best explicated in the ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'', which includes this sentence: ""original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but human nature has not been totally corrupted" (ยง405).
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