It is plainly obvious that today’s world is not the Garden of Eden – the perfect, beautiful spot where the first humans allegedly lived. Usually interpreted as Adam and Eve’s transgression in the Garden of Eden (an act that Christians believe tainted human nature), the notion of original sin was developed in the fourth century by Augustine of Hippo.
Original Sin and Sexual Desire
Augustine believed that original sin manifested itself in sexual desire. His attitude towards sex was not unusual for his time: “Augustine lived in an ascetic age, where the sensitive man already felt humiliated by his body and where his clerical readers would have been increasingly celibate” (Brown 388).
Augustine lived in a society where many religious philosophies related the body to evil; his struggles with his own desires left him fascinated and perplexed with the concept of evil. He strove to reconcile his own shortcomings with the immaculate perfection of God and God’s creation.
Augustine eventually developed the theory that all humans are inherently evil because of Adam’s sin, which is transmitted through semen; no one is good, and we do not have free will because we are trapped in sin.
Humans become evil, then, at the moment of conception; no one is innocent, not even infants, their sin evident in their ability to act selfishly or jealously. Original sin proved compatible with other theological ideas, such as the virgin birth; if sin is transmitted through semen during conception, then all humans are implicated except for Christ.
Initial Reactions to Original Sin
Although it was initially contested, the notion of original sin soon became widely accepted. It may seem puzzling to outsiders why people would voluntarily accept such a negative, condemning idea. Some Christians of the time did disagree; they found the concept of original sin contrary to foundational beliefs such as the goodness of creation and the human freedom (Pagels 131).
In Augustine’s time, however, many people lived in a “mentality of dependence,” so Augustine’s explanation fit perfectly with society's outlook. Original sin also provides an answer to theodicy. Original sin does not ease suffering, but for Christians, it proposes an answer as to why humans must suffer; as Pagels explains, perhaps “people would rather feel guilty than helpless” (146).
Emperors would also have supported the idea of original sin, since it reinforced their power; because man, a fallen creature, could not control himself, he needed “more than purely spiritual pressures to keep him from evil” (Brown 239).
According to Pagels, “Augustine’s dark vision of a human nature ravaged by original sin and overrun by lust for power rules out uncritical adulation and qualifies his endorsement of imperial rule” (118). Interestingly, though, Christians believe that the power and authority to control human sinfulness is, under imperial rule, given to merely another fallen and sinful human.
Original Sin Today
The concept of original sin endures today in Christian theology, although it has been challenged by sociobiological interpretations of evolution.
Sources:
Brown, Peter. Augustine of Hippo. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967.
Pagels, Elaine. Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. New York: Random House, 1988.
“Violence undone.” Christian Century 123.18 (2006): 30-35. Academic Search Premier. 6 March 2007.
Rebekah Richards - Rebekah Richards has published fiction and nonfiction in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Brandeis Law Journal, Where the Children Play, ...
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