Augustine's Changed Interpretation of Romans 7 and his Doctrine of Inherited Sin
During Augustine’s first decade of commenting on the Pauline literature, he regularly used the mortality consequent upon the failure of the first humans in the paradise and the desires that arose from this weakened bodily condition in their offspring to account for the universality of personal failu...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
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| Published: |
Rabbi Myer and Dorothy Kripke Center for the Study of Religion and Society at Creighton University
2018
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| In: |
Journal of religion & society. Supplement
Year: 2018, Volume: 15, Pages: 104-127 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | During Augustine’s first decade of commenting on the Pauline literature, he regularly used the mortality consequent upon the failure of the first humans in the paradise and the desires that arose from this weakened bodily condition in their offspring to account for the universality of personal failure and sin that he found affirmed in Paul’s letter to the Romans. During his preaching in the first decade of the fifth century, following the Confessiones, Augustine began to change his interpretation of both the consequences of the sin of Adam and Eve (Romans 5:12) and the status of those living in Christ’s church (Romans 7:14-25). Without denying the earlier application of the latter text to persons attempting and failing to fulfill the recently learned moral law, he began to apply it to Christians living by the guidance of the moral law and under the influence of grace. Even the faithful were unable to accomplish all that the moral law required of them. At the same time, Augustine began to shift his understanding of the consequences of the sin of Adam and Eve from the inheritance of mortality to sharing the guilt of that sin as well as its punishment. At the beginning of the Pelagian controversy, Augustine’s attention was focused on the implications of the church’s practice of baptizing infants. In considering the relationship of sin, guilt, mortality, and evil desires, he brought together the understanding of the limits of voluntary self-control and self-determination in both infants and adults. This resulted in a new theory of the transmission of evil desires through generation that involved both guilt and evil desires that could be resisted but not prevented or eliminated by personal efforts. Thus, he elaborated an explanation of evil desire and original guilt that depended on bodily influences and was independent of any particular explanation of the origin of the human soul. |
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| ISSN: | 1941-8450 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religion & society. Supplement
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