Original Sin

The big question

The doctrine of original sin seems unfair to many people. Why should anyone be born guilty of something someone else did thousands of years ago? Isn’t it absurd to say a newborn baby is a sinner?

G. K. Chesterton once remarked that original sin is the only part of Christian theology that can be proved from experience. Look at the world, or honestly at yourself: something is wrong with us that we did not choose and cannot fix alone. The doctrine names that problem and its origin.

What the Church teaches

Adam, by his sin, lost the holiness and justice in which he had been created, for himself and for all of us, and became subject to death (Trent, Session V, canons 1–2; DH 1511–1512).

This sin is passed to all by descent, not by imitation, and is truly present in each person as his own (Trent, Session V, canon 3; DH 1513).

It is taken away by the merits of Christ, applied in Baptism. What remains after Baptism, the inclination to sin called concupiscence, is not itself a sin (Trent, Session V, canons 3 and 5; DH 1513, 1515).

How sure is this? De fide. See CCC 385–421.

Where it comes from

Scripture. Genesis 3 tells of the first humans’ disobedience and its effects: shame, blame, conflict, pain and death. St Paul gives the doctrinal meaning: “Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned” (Romans 5:12). The point of his comparison is Christ: “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19); “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).

The Psalms already sense that sin is older than our own choices: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). And even in Genesis 3, God promises a coming victory over the serpent (Genesis 3:15), which the tradition calls the “first gospel”.

The early Church. In the early fifth century the British monk Pelagius taught that Adam harmed us only by giving a bad example, and that we can be good without grace. St Augustine opposed him, and the Church sided with Augustine: Adam’s sin wounded human nature itself, which is why we need Christ’s grace (Council of Carthage, 418; Council of Orange, 529). The Easter Proclamation sung at the Easter Vigil goes so far as to call Adam’s sin a “happy fault”, since it won for us so great a Redeemer.

How theologians explain it

“Sin” in a different sense. Original sin is called sin, but not in the same sense as the sins we commit. It is “contracted, not committed”: a state, not an act (CCC 404). No one is personally guilty of Adam’s choice. What we inherit is the condition that choice produced.

What exactly is lost. St Thomas Aquinas explains that original sin is, at its core, the lack of original justice: the grace and inner harmony God intended human nature to have (Summa I-II, q. 82, a. 3). We are born without the grace we were meant to have, and with our desires no longer fully under the rule of reason.

An inheritance image. Imagine a family given a great estate on the condition that its founder stays loyal to the king. The founder betrays the king and the estate is forfeited. His descendants are born poor, not because they committed his betrayal, but because what they would have inherited is gone. That is the sense in which we inherit Adam’s sin. The image has limits: original sin is not merely a lost possession, but a real lack in us of something we were meant to have.

Wounded, not destroyed. Human nature after the Fall is wounded, not totally corrupted (CCC 405):

Human nature after the Fall still has	But suffers
Reason, able to know truth	Ignorance and error
Free will, able to choose good	Weakness and an inclination to sin (concupiscence)
Its goodness as God’s creation	Suffering and death

This is where Catholic teaching differs from the view of some Reformers, who held that the Fall left human nature totally corrupt and free will destroyed. The Council of Trent rejected that (Session VI, canon 5; DH 1555).

The story and history. The Catechism says Genesis uses figurative language, but affirms a real event, a primeval fault that took place at the beginning of human history (CCC 390). The Church does not ask Catholics to take every detail literally. Pius XII judged that it is not apparent how the theory that humanity descends from many original pairs could be reconciled with the doctrine of original sin (Humani Generis 37). That is weighty teaching, but not a solemn definition, and theologians still discuss how best to relate the doctrine to what science says about human origins.

Why it matters. Original sin explains why everyone needs Christ, why the Church baptises infants (Unit 10), and why the moral life is a struggle even for good people. Above all, it shows the scale of what Christ came to undo.

Philosophy bridge

Lesson 2.4 described evil as a privation: the lack of a good that should be there. Original sin is a privation in exactly this sense. It is not a substance or a stain in the physical sense, but the lack of a grace human nature was meant to have.

What the Church does not claim

• Not that babies are personally guilty. Original sin is contracted, not committed.
• Not that human nature is totally depraved. We are wounded, but still good, free and able to know truth.
• Not that the first sin was sexual. Genesis presents it as disobedience and distrust of God: wanting to decide good and evil for ourselves (CCC 397–398).
• Not that Catholics must believe in a literal apple or talking snake. The language is figurative; the event is real.
• Not that unbaptised infants are damned. The Church entrusts them to God’s mercy (CCC 1261; Lesson 10.2).

Check your understanding

1. According to the Council of Trent, how is original sin passed on, and how is it taken away?

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It is passed on by descent, not by imitation, and is truly present in each person. It is taken away by the merits of Christ, applied in Baptism.

2. What does it mean that original sin is “contracted, not committed”?

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It is a state we are born into, not an act we performed. No one is personally guilty of Adam’s choice; we inherit the condition it produced.

3. What did Pelagius teach, and why did the Church reject it?

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That Adam harmed us only by giving a bad example, and that we can be good without grace. The Church rejected it because Adam’s sin wounded human nature itself, so everyone needs Christ’s grace.

4. Is concupiscence a sin? Explain.

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No. Concupiscence is the inclination to sin that remains after Baptism. It comes from sin and leads toward sin, but Trent teaches it is not itself a sin.

5. Must Catholics read Genesis 3 literally?

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No. The Catechism says Genesis uses figurative language, but it affirms a real event at the beginning of human history, a first sin freely committed.