Editing Original sin (section)

===Catholicism===
{{See also|Catholic hamartiology}}
In the theology of the [[Catholic Church]], original sin is the absence of [[original righteousness|original holiness]] and justice into which humans are born, distinct from the [[actual sin]]s that a person commits. The absence of sanctifying grace or holiness in the new-born child is an effect of the first sin, for Adam, having received holiness and justice from God, lost it not only for himself but also for humanity.{{sfn|Harent|1911}} The ''[[Catechism of the Catholic Church]]'' sets forth the Catholic doctrine of original sin in brief.

{{Blockquote|By his sin Adam, as the first man, lost the original holiness he had received from God, not only for himself but for all humans.

Adam and Eve transmitted to their descendants human nature wounded by their own first sin and hence deprived of original holiness and justice; this deprivation is called "original sin".

As a result of original sin, human nature is weakened in its powers, subject to ignorance, suffering and the domination of death, and inclined to sin (this inclination is called "concupiscence").<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1C.HTM ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' 2003, paras. 416-418.]</ref>}}

[[Anselm of Canterbury]] wrote that "there is a difference between the sin of Adam on the one hand, and the sins of children on the other: one is the cause and one is the effect."{{sfn|Davies|Evans|1998|pp=385-386}} Following this, Catholic doctrine sees the original sin of a child as distinct from the fault of Adam, but rather as one of its effects. The effects of Adam's sin according to the Catholic Encyclopedia are the following.

# Death and suffering: "One man has transmitted to the whole human race not only the death of the body, which is the punishment of sin, but even sin itself, which is the death of the soul."
# Concupiscence or inclination to sin: baptism erases original sin but the inclination to sin remains.
# The absence of sanctifying grace in the new-born child is also an effect of the first sin, for Adam, having received holiness and justice from God, lost it not only for himself but also for humanity. Baptism confers original sanctifying grace, lost through the Adam's sin, thus eliminating original sin and any personal sin.{{sfn|Harent|1911}}

The Catholic Church teaches that every human person born on earth is made in the image of God.<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1B.HTM ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' 2003, para. 355.]</ref> Within man "is both the powerful surge toward the good because we are made in the image of God, and the darker impulses toward evil because of the effects of Original Sin".{{sfn|United States Conference of Catholic Bishops}} Furthermore, it explicitly denies that guilt is inherited from anyone, maintaining that instead humanity inherits its own fallen nature. In this it differs from the Reformed position that each person actually inherits Adam's guilt, and teaches instead that "original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants [...] but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man".<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1C.HTM ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' 2003, para. 405.]</ref> This view, that human beings do not bear guilt for the sin of Adam, is also held in Eastern Orthodoxy. The Catholic Church teaches, "By our first parents' sin, the devil has acquired a certain domination over man, even though man remains free."<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1C.HTM ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' 2003, para. 407.]</ref>[[File:0 Venise, 'La Chute d'Adam et Ève' - Palais des Doges (2).JPG|thumb|right|''The Fall of Adam and Eve'', by [[Antonio Rizzo (architect)|Antonio Rizzo]], 1476]]

The Catholic Church has always held baptism to be for the remission of sins including the original sin, and, as mentioned in ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'', infants too have traditionally been baptized, though not held guilty of any actual personal sin. The sin that through baptism is remitted for them could only be original sin. Baptism confers original sanctifying grace that erases original sin and any actual personal sin.<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1C.HTM ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' 2003, para. 403.]</ref> The first comprehensive theological explanation of this practice of baptizing infants, guilty of no actual personal sin, was given by Augustine of Hippo, not all of whose ideas on original sin have been adopted by the Catholic Church—the church has condemned the Protestant interpretation of Augustine characteristic of Luther and Calvin which involves total depravity, or a complete loss of freedom to will rightly.<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1C.HTM ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'', para. 406.]</ref>

The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' explains that "by yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would then transmit in a fallen state. [... Original] sin is called "sin" only in an analogical sense: it is a sin "contracted" and not "committed" - a state and not an act."<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1C.HTM ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'', para. 404.]</ref> This "state of deprivation of the original holiness and justice{{nbsp}}[...] transmitted to the descendants of Adam along with human nature"<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/compendium_ccc/documents/archive_2005_compendium-ccc_en.html#The%20Profession%20of%20the%20Christian%20Faith ''Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church'', 76]</ref> involves no personal responsibility or personal guilt on their part (as stated in para. 405 of the ''Catechism''). Personal responsibility and guilt were Adam's, who because of his sin, was unable to pass on to his descendants a human nature with the holiness with which it would otherwise have been endowed, in this way implicating them in his sin. The doctrine of original sin thus does not impute the sin of the father to his children, but merely states that they inherit from him a "human nature deprived of original holiness and justice", which is "transmitted by propagation to all mankind".<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1C.HTM ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'', para. 404.]</ref>

In Catholic theology, the meaning of the word "concupiscence" is the movement of the sensitive appetite contrary to the operation of the human reason. The apostle St Paul identifies it with the rebellion of the "flesh" against the "spirit". "Concupiscence stems from the disobedience of the first sin. It unsettles man's moral faculties and, without being in itself an offence, inclines man to commit sins."<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P8P.HTM ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'', para. 2515]</ref>

====Salvation of infants====
Augustine believed that unbaptized infants go to hell as a consequence of original sin.{{efn|name=Infernum}}<ref>[https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf105/npnf105.x.iii.xxi.html ''A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants'', Book 1, Chapter 21.]</ref> The Latin [[Church Fathers]] who followed Augustine adopted his position, which became a point of reference for Latin theologians in the Middle Ages.{{sfn|International Theological Commission|2007|loc=19-21}} In the later medieval period, some theologians continued to hold Augustine's view. Others held that unbaptized infants suffered no pain at all: unaware of being deprived of the [[beatific vision]], they enjoyed a state of natural, not supernatural happiness. Starting around 1300, unbaptized infants were often said to inhabit the "[[Unbaptized Infants|limbo of infants]]".{{sfn|International Theological Commission|2007|loc=22-25}} The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'', declares: "As regards children who have died without Baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them. Indeed, the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved, and Jesus' tenderness toward children which caused him to say: "Let the children come to me, do not hinder them," allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism. All the more urgent is the Church's call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy Baptism."<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P3M.HTM ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'', para. 1261]</ref> But the theory of Limbo, while it "never entered into the dogmatic definitions of the Magisterium{{nbsp}}[...] remains{{nbsp}}[...] a possible theological hypothesis".{{sfn|International Theological Commission|2007|loc=1}}

====Post-conciliar developments====
Soon after the [[Second Vatican Council]], biblical theologian [[Herbert Haag]] raised the question; "Is original sin in Scripture?"{{sfn|Haag|1966}} According to his exegesis, {{bibleverse|Genesis|2:25}} would indicate that Adam and Eve were created from the beginning naked of the [[divine grace]], an originary grace that, then, they would never have had, and much less would have lost due to the subsequent events narrated. On the other hand, while supporting a continuity in the Bible about the absence of [[preternatural]] gifts ({{langx|la|dona praeternaturalia}}),{{sfn|Haag|1966|pp=11, 49–50}} with regard to the [[Serpents in the Bible#Eden|ophitic event]], Haag never makes any reference to the discontinuity of the loss of access to the [[Tree of life (biblical)|tree of life]]. {{bibleverse|Genesis|2:17}} states that, if one ate the fruit of the [[tree of the knowledge of good and evil]], one would surely die, and the adverb indicates that, by avoiding this type of choice, one would have the possibility but not the certainty of accessing to the other tree. Therefore, in 1970 Latin American biblical scholar Carlos Mesters wondered if "Eden [is] golden age or goad to action", [[wikt:protology|protology]] or [[eschatology]], nostalgia for an idealized past or hope for something that has yet to happen as it is claimed by {{bibleverse|Revelation|2:7}} and {{bibleverse|Revelation|22:2}}.{{sfn|Mesters|1970|pp=}}

Some warn against taking Genesis 3 too literally. They take into account that "God had the church in mind before the foundation of the world" (as in {{bibleverse|Ephesians|1:4}}{{sfn|Ritenbaugh}} as also in {{bibleverse|2 Timothy|1:9}}, "...his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus ''before'' the world began."{{sfn|Institute for Creation Research}} In his 1986 book ''{{'}}In the Beginning...{{'}}'', [[Pope Benedict XVI]] referred to the term "original sin" as "misleading and unprecise".{{sfn|Ratzinger|1986|p=72}} Benedict does not require a literal interpretation of Genesis, or of the origin of evil, but writes, "How was it possible, how did it happen? This remains obscure. Evil is not logical. Only God and good are logical, are light. Evil remains mysterious. It is presented as such in great images, as it is in chapter 3 of Genesis, with that scene of the two trees, of the serpent, of sinful man: a great image that makes us guess but cannot explain what is itself illogical."{{sfn|Benedict XVI|2008}}