ORIGINAL SIN. The native corruption of man, resulting in universal sin. and itself con ceived as partaking of the nature of sin. The period of elaborate discussion of this subject, eventuating in a comprehensive doctrine of sin. fell in the first third of the fifth century: but the elements of the doctrine had been held from the beginning in the Church both of the East and the West. The earliest fathers are full of ex pressions teaching the universality and persist ence of sin, and ascribing it in some indefinite form to a deep-seated origin in the nature of man. An early difference appeared between the Latin and the Greek Church on account of the general emphasis which the latter laid upon the intellectual and the former upon the practical. The Greeks emphasize more the freedom of man. the Latins his practical bondage to evil. it has therefore often been said that the Greeks had no doctrine of original sin; but they teach an original state of righteousness, accept the fact of the fall, and view this as not only bringing man under the dominion of the devil, but as producing a teltdency to sin. This tendency arises from the obseuration of the intellect, the weakness in reference to the good, and the ascendency of the sensuous nature over the higher powers and faculties, which have resulted from Adam's sin. At the same time, freedom is carefully guarded, and the more so because of the conflict which these early fathers were wag ing with the Gnostics. (See GNOSTICISM.) Man still has the power to choose the good as well as the evil. Otherwise he would not he responsible. Grace is necessary to repentance, but it is styled an 'assistance.' Origen referred the universality of sin to the self-corruption of all human spirits in a previous state of exi,t enee. The Latins, while in general acknowledg ing the same fundamental truths as the Greeks, throw the emphasis upon the concrete facts of sin and grace. Tertullian approached the later Latin view. The premises of the doctrine lie in his psychology (see TEADUCIANISM ) and his doctrine of the original condition of man. 31an was created good, but not perfect. By his sin be became corrupt, and this corruption pro pagates itself by natural generation among his descendants. Hence every child of Adam is impure and subject to death. Grace is no mere 'assistance,' but it is a creative and power. In this general position the Latin fathers
of this period generally concur.
The discussion was carried on in the fifth century by Pelagius and Augustine (qq.v.). The main positions of the latter were embodied in the result of the Council of Orange (529), which declared that by the sin of Adam free will has been so perverted and weakened that fallen man is incapable, without the initiative of divine grace, of performing merito•iou.s acts leading to salvation, and hence this doctrine passed into the theology of the Middle Ages. A milder view sprang up immediately, which was termed the 'Semi-Pelagian' (q.v.), which gave the initiative in conversion now to man, and now to God, and hence greatly modified the doctrine of the effect of the fall upon the will. The doctrines of the Semi-Pelagians were condemned at the Council of Valence (530). The Council of Trent (q.v.) defined original sin in substantially the same way as the Council of Orange. but elaborated and expanded it, and its definition is the accepted doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Reformers adhered to the strict Augustin ian doctrine, often surpassing Augustine by their extreme forms of statement. They were deeply impressed with the enormity and pervasiveness of sin, and with the entire dependence of man upon the grace of God for the creation within him of the least tendency toward good. The history of the doctrine presents. therefore, little hut the reaffirmation of Augustinian positions, and may be summarized in the result formulated ln• the Westminster Confession (chap. vi.), which stands here for most of the Reformation creeds. "Our first parents . . . hr this sin . . . became dead in sin and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and holy. . . . The guilt of this sin was imputed and the same death in sin and corrupted nature conveyed to all their posterity. . . This corruption of nature (luring this life (loth remain in those that are regenerated : and although it be through Christ pardoned and mortified, yet both itself and all the motions thereof are truly and properly sin." Consult the literature under AUGUSTINE; also the Systems of Doctrine, particularly Charles Hodge. Systematic Theology (New York, 1871-73) ; Landis, The Doctrine of Original Sin. (Richmond, 1885).