Hello Blake,
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dr. Blake Nelson [mailto:bnelson301@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 10:41 AM
> To: Adrian Teo; 'MikeSatterlee@cs.com'; asa@calvin.edu
> Subject: RE: Bear sacrifice
>
> 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.
AT: Timothy Ware, in his book _The Orthodox Church_ writes:
"The consequence of Adam's disobedience extended to all his descendents."
(p.223, new ed.) The eastern church has traditionally the consequences of
the fall as less severe, but, in accord with Catholicism and most of
Protestantism, accepts Adam as the source of original sin.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 404. "How did the SIN of Adam become the
SIN of all his descendants? The whole human race is in Adam 'as one body of
one man'.[St. Thomas Aquinas, De malo 4, I.] By this 'unity of the human
race' all men are implicated in Adam's SIN, as all are implicated in
Christ's justice. Still, the transmission of ORIGINAL SIN is a mystery that
we cannot fully understand. But we do know by Revelation that Adam had
received ORIGINAL holiness and justice not for himself alone, but for all
human nature. By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal
SIN, but this SIN affected the human nature that they would then transmit in
a fallen state.[Cf. Council of Trent: DS 1511-1512.] It is a SIN which will
be transmitted by propagation to all mankind, that is, by the transmission
of a human nature deprived of ORIGINAL holiness and justice. And that is why
ORIGINAL SIN is called 'SIN' only in an analogical sense: it is a SIN
'contracted' and not 'committed' - a state and not an act."
Again, a clear affirmation that Adam is the source of original sin.
> 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.
AT: I agree. But if one believes that the Holy Spirit guides the church in
truth, then doctrines are more than just the personal conclusions of any one
person in time. They have been discussed, debated, and finally accepted or
rejected at the various councils and synods, under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit.
Blessings,
Adrian.
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