The Christian Doctrine ofOriginal Sin

The Christian Doctrine ofOriginal Sin

Religions may be contrasted with
secular philosophies in that the
former recognise the
transcendent principle of human
nature while the latter tend to
view man as a material being.
Religions usually refer to this
transcendent principle as the
spirit or the soul in man. Most
religions recognise three
dimensions within man: body,
mind and spirit. Secular theories
of human nature tend to
recognise only the body and
sometimes the mind. Western
psychologists such as Carl Jung
recognise the spiritual dimension
not as an independent
unchanging reality, but as a part
of the human psyche. Religions in
general, with the exception of
Hinayana Buddhism, recognise
the spiritual dimension of man as
a distinct unchanging reality of
human nature. The first step
towards self-knowledge is the
recognition of our inmost spiritual
essence which is universal in man
and which is immortal. It is this
innate spirituality which explains
the urge at the heart of every
man for betterment and self-
realisation; and it is this human
spirit which explains man ’s
capability to emerge out of
darkness into light and goodness.
This emergence has been the
unfailing history of man: nothing
can stop the human soul from
projecting itself nearer to the
source of all good, Allah. Islam
and Christianity both recognise
this innate spirituality but they
differ in the methods by which to
attain to this self-realisation, and
they also differ in the methods
by which they attain to this self-
realisation, and they also differ
with respect to their views of
innate human nature. For the
Christian view I need to turn to
the doctrine of original goodness
in Islam. Such a comparison will
bring into focus the divergent
perspectives of human nature of
two major religions of the world.
Christianity, in all the varied
forms in which it exists today, is
probably the largest religious
movement. It emerged out of
Judaism as a religion of salvation
by faith. Christianity became a
universal religion of redemption,
and its world-renouncing strain
has been strong for a great part
of its history. Judaism and Islam
were never so dominated by
monasticism and the ideal of
celibacy. This is not to say that
Christianity did not have a world
affirming strain in it. The
Kingdom of God was an
imminently arriving state of this
earth. With emphasis on the
person of Jesus, peace be upon
him, rather than his preaching,
salvation was to be by rather
than his preaching, salvation was
to be by faith-union with Jesus in
his supposed death and
resurrection. Jesus, peace be
upon him, was exalted to
heaven and acclaimed as Lord,
Son of God, and the meaning of
Messiah – an anointed prophet-
king – was altered radically.
Paul was the main figure to work
out Christian theology almost
entirely in terms of the doctrine
for man. Jesus ’ two worlds are
reinterpreted in terms of a great
contrast between man in
bondage to the flesh and man
redeemed in Christ. This theology
is set out in the first eight
chapters of The Epistle to the
Romans.[18] The flesh (sarx) is
man in his weakness and the
spirit (pneuma) is the Divine
breath and power of life which
makes man inwardly aware of
himself as a person. The whole
person is either bound to sin or
redeemed in Christ. As a
rabbinically trained Jew, Paul had
to integrate his new gospel of
salvation with the old doctrine of
creation and so he began the
development of the Christian epic
story:
‘Creation had originally been
perfect, but Adam fell and
mankind has since been in
bondage to sin; but through
Christ, the second Adam or Last
man, the world or mankind are
being restored to their original
perfection. Thus in the Christian
doctrine of man the central
theme is that Christ is the
Creator ’s proper (=own) Man.’[19]
To make this scheme more
intelligible, Paul had to emphasise
both the parallels and the
contrasts between Adam and
Christ, peace be upon both of
them. Adam was first made in
the image of God, but Christ is the
true and final image of God.
Adam ’s disobedience plunged
mankind into ruin, but Christ’s
obedience restored mankind.
Adam brought wrath and guilt
upon mankind, Christ has brought
grace and acquittal.
This contrast profoundly affected
later Christian thought. The
Christian doctrine of man has two
themes, the Divine image and
the Fall. Since the latter theme is
more directly relevant to my
discussion of original sin I shall
focus on this aspect, Adam ’s
disobedience plunged the human
race into ruin, and fallen man
could not of himself do good,
please God or gain salvation.
A good example of the classic
Christian doctrine of man is
Milton ’s Christian epic Paradise
Lost (1667). The themes are the
special creation of man by God,
the Divine image in man, original
righteousness, the Fall through
man ’s disobedience, the curse on
man and woman, and the
ensuing original sin. This scheme
was wrecked by Darwinism and
today liberal and humanistic
theologians take over the
evolutionary view of man ’s
gradual ascent, seeing Christ as a
pinnacle of human development.
Others, such as Rudolph Bultman
and Paul Tillich, have built their
theology on an existentialist
doctrine of man.
The Christian is born in sin and in
an impure state, and cannot
redeem himself by his own inner
resources, but only through
Christ. Salvation for the Christian
is centred on an external entity –
the mystical body of Christ in
which the Christian must
participate in order to be saved.
By contrast, in Islam the
redemptive potential is centred
in the individual himself, who
engages in meaningful
intercourse with the guidance
provided by the Qur'an and the
Sunnah, Salvation in Islam
depends on faith (iman) and
good conduct (ihsân), and not on
faith alone. The Qur'an
emphasises the exertion of will,
for ‘there is nothing for man but
that which he strove for’. This
notion of the will also has
implications for responsibility. A
person is responsible only for the
manner in which he exercised his
own will and not the will of other
persons.
Christians believe that Christ has
paid the wages of sin through his
death, and having suffered for all
men ’s sins. Salvation is based on
this faith. Without the doctrine of
original sin there would be no
need for a saviour and,
consequently, the trinity, the
crucifixion and the resurrection
would become meaningless.
Islam rejects the premises of
these doctrines, especially the
concept of original sin which is
alien to Islam and inconceivable
to the Muslim mind. Islam has a
different version of the Fall.
Adam acknowledged that he had
gone astray and sincerely sought
Allah's forgiveness which was
granted to him unconditionally.
Adam and his progeny
descended from bliss to the earth
because of his error, and yet,
none of his children inherited the
blame for his error. The volitional
implication of fitrah is that man is
responsible for his own wrong
actions. It is inconceivable to
Muslim thinking that mankind
should be punished for wrong
actions that others did. The
concept of Divine forgiveness
features strongly in the Qur'an,
for Allah accepts the sincere
repentance of His slaves.
‘But the devil made them slip
from it, and caused them to
depart from the state in which
they were. And We said, "Down
with you and be henceforth
enemies unto one another; and
you shall have in the land a state
of settledness and necessities of
life for a period."
Then Adam received words (of
guidance) from his Lord and He
accepted his repentance: truly,
He is the Acceptor of Repentance,
the Compassionate. ’ (Qur'an
2:36-37)
Tawbah (literally, turning, i.e.
away from wrong action, and to
Allah) or repentance plays a very
significant and decisive role in a
Muslim ’s life. Although man is
born in a state of original
goodness or fitrah, he is also
subject to temptation and folly.
Allah has granted him the ability
and opportunity to repent which
means that he should admit his
errors and turn remorsefully
away from them to Allah.

Note: Allah = The God