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I thought it would be interesting to take up the question of Original Sin. Now, as I understand it, Adam and Eve were living in a state of grace, and that grace was withdrawn with the Expulsion. Rather than condemn them to death or sterility, they and their descendants were condemned to a life of hardship from which they might have been spare. This was the Jewish conception of the matter, and entailed no inherited "stain of sin". Since there was no right to the bliss, there could be no injustice in the hardship. Christianity introduced the idea the first sin lead to a corruption that was part of the corporeal being of the First Parents, and heritable. We might clinically describe it as the difficulty of bringing the "reptilian brain" entirely under the control of reason, or, as Paul said, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." The Christian attitude seems to be reflected in the old poem, "Oh happy fault, to merit for us so great a Redeemer." In other words, God permitted all of this in order to demonstrate the boundlessness of His love, through the sacrifice of the Cross. Now, it is understandable that one might find it dubious, but it is certainly sublime..... |
