Did the fathers of the Church before Augustine speak about the original sin?
Marta Przyszychowska
Uniwersytet Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego w Warszawie , PolandAbstract
It is true that the Fathers of the Church before Augustine did not use the term „original sin”. However, in the writings of very many of them, both in the East and in the West, we do find a belief in the solidarity of all people with Adam or even in the unity of entire humanity in Adam. Talking about the first sin the Fathers use the expression „our” sin; they claim that „we” offended God in Adam, they admit that „we all” were in Adam’s loins when he committed the sin, and finally they straightforwardly claim that „all people” sinned in Adam. Some of them feel personally responsible for the offence committed in Paradise. Most of the Fathers, and perhaps even all of them, were convinced of real unity of entire humanity and they considered participation of all people in Adam’s sin as one of the aspects of that unity. The fall of the first man separated not only himself, but also all people from the communion with God, because every man somehow participated in that fall. And that is, after all, the very essence of the original sin.
Keywords:
Adam, Ambrosiaster, Ambrose of Milan, Didymus the Blind, original sin, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, Irenaeus, Methodius of Olympus, Fathers of the Church, Origen, TertullianReferences
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