Did It Evolve? Original Sin and Contemporary Science (2024)

Revisiting Original Sin

this study contains a brief research on the views of the great theologians from history: Pelagius, Augustine of Hippo, John Calvin, Jacob Arminius. included here are also arguments taken and based from the inspired writings, the Bible. a supplementary from Ellen G. White is also included.

The Evolution of Sin

The article develops a theological concept of the evolution of sin. In dialogue with evolutionary biology, the article clarifies how sin evolves out of the shadow side of creation. Therefore, we need to acknowledge how sin, already before the evolution of human beings, influences life. What this means for the understanding of human sin, is worked out in dialogue with evolutionary psychology on the one side and the Pauline understanding of flesh on the other side. From this perspective, sin appears as the human failure to live up to one's divine calling by not transcending the evolutionary advance socialisation. Finally, the article addresses boundary cases in the dialogue, which undergird the specific potential of a theological understanding of sin. Theology can show how the power of sin endangers those cultural entities upon which the hopes of modernity rest in the struggle to overcome violence .

Original Sin: Inherited, Inevitable But Not Genetic

This paper reviews the major views throughout history of Original Sin, and then draws the outline of perspective which collects the best elements from each.

Human Evolution and a Cultural Understanding of Original Sin

In this article we explore the interface between new theories of human evolution and a cultural understanding of original sin. According to recent theories developed in evolutionary biology, the human being is essentially a "cultured" being with the ability to live in different environments. This is a crucial difference between humans and other species, including other primates. Humans are thus necessarily dependent on socialization by their community. As a result, both the creative insights and shortcomings of human individuals are instilled in their descendants. This article explores whether, and if so how, this can contribute to our understanding of the propagation of sin through the human population. In doing so it becomes clear that while new scientific views concerning the development of the human species do raise problems for Christian theology, they also allow for new creative explorations that may deepen our understanding of classic doctrines.

Introduction to the Symposium on Evolution, Original Sin, and the Fall

Zygon, 2021

Considering Original Sin

Contemporary Christians, and non-Christians alike, have an issue with the doctrine of original sin, and as Duffy points out in his essay Our Hearts of Darkness: Original Sin Revisited, " there is reason to feel uneasy with the term " original sin " " .1 To recapture the doctrine of Original Sin is to better understand both its origins and its current standing. Anyone living today, in a world filled wit catastrophe and tragedy, may find the doctrine of original sin to be both obvious and essential. Fr. Tom Rausch S.J. PhD believes there is today an overly optimistic view of humanity, and that an understanding of original sin has seemingly fallen away. This is a problematic, for original sin is perhaps the 'why' of Christianity. Original sin was formulated as a sort of Christology, and soteriology, and as an understanding of original sin has deteriorated, there has also been a lack of motive on the part those who grew up with a faith to care about their faith. Without a proper understanding of original sin Christianity, and religion as a whole, has been reduced to wish sending and help seeking. Life is confortable, especially for those living in the developed world, where technology has advanced to the point where wondering or questioning unrestrictedly is no longer necessary, one merely has to 'Google' something, or ask Siri for the answer. Understanding sinfulness, and by sinfulness is meant having missed the mark, is essential to future evangelization, for without a recapturing, or reinterpreting, perhaps even just a rewording, of this doctrine, Christ and the cross are merely one more life philosophy competing in a very pluralistic society. The intent of this paper is to thoroughly explore the history of the doctrine of original sin, to pay attention to the social movements which have fueled new interpretations and understandings of original sin, to summarize several contemporary understandings of original sin, and to finally attempt to say something regarding the nature of language and its connection, perhaps, to the genesis of sin in mankind.

Original Sin and the Facts of Palaeoanthropology

2023

“The Plain, Old Faith”: Theological Foundations for a Scientifically Informed Constructive Doctrine of Original Sin in the Wesleyan Tradition

2021

How should Wesleyans integrate modern understandings of science with theological commitments to the idea of original sin? After offering some historical context for Wesley’s engagement with the doctrine of original sin, this article aims to put contemporary socio- scientific discussions. The authority of scripture is engaged in light of Wesley’s “analogy of faith” and James K. A. Smith’s “Narrative-Arc” theological method. Insights of evolutionary psychology and sociobiology are then combined with Wesley’s understanding of universal human sinfulness and regenerating grace. The article explores Wesley’s holistic theological anthropology and contemporary emergence theory in their respective attempts to understand sin’s nefarious substance and power. Finally, the author notes additional theological considerations and concludes with a call to embrace John Wesley’s “catholic spirit.

From Death to Depravity: How "Missing the Mark" Became "Original Sin

2014

Jeremy Cohen, “Original Sin as the Evil Inclination: A Polemicist’s Appreciation of Human Nature,” Harvard Theological Review, vol. 73, no. 3-4 (July-October 1980): 495-520