I am puzzled by what traditional understanding you are
talking about? If you mean Original Sin, the doctrine
originated with Tertullian (unsurprisingly a lawyer by
trianing) and was propounded by Augustine to a degree
unprecedented among the Church Fathers up to that
point.
The Eastern Orthodox church has never taken
Augustine's elaboration of that doctrine very far,
having a much less legalistic and more "positive"
theological bent. So, the doctrine is only
well-established in the Western Church and
protestantism has taken Augustine's elaboration of
original sin farther than Catholicism has. So, if you
are talking about original sin as dogma, it is largely
an Augustinian exegetical gloss and one that is not
prevalent in one of Christianity's major traditions --
the Eastern Orthodox Church and less prevalent in
Catholicism than in protestantism.
When one makes a "theological" statement one has to
also look at when that point of theological
understanding developed and based on whose exegetical
gloss. Likewise, one has to look at the entirety of
the Christian tradition to make an assessment about
how fundamental it is to Christian doctrine.
(SNIP)
> > AT wrote: If the church could have been wrong on
> her
> > understanding of
> > humanity and how death came about, then the
> church could have
> > also been wrong
> > on a number of other doctrines. Where is the Holy
> Spirit who
> > will lead in all
> > truth as Jesus promised?
> >
> > He is with us all continuing to lead us into all
> truth. But
> > He is taking His
> > time, giving every generation of Christians all
> the truth it
> > needs and all it
> > has been able to bear.
>
> AT: So when I firmly disagree with you on a
> fundamental doctrine, who is the
> Holy Spirit guiding? This generation of Christians
> is more splintered than
> any other prior generations. Whose side is the Holy
> Spirit on?
>
> Even today in this age of science, the traditional
> understanding is still
> the most widely accepted one. Are you saying that
> the majority of
> Christendom is wrong on such a fundamental doctrine
> because the Holy Spirit
> thinks that we are not able to bear the truth? I
> don't get it.
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