The Relationship of Sin and Death in Current Theological Reflection

Abstract

In Christian tradition death is seen as a result of original sin. The relationship of sin with death is a serious problem for modern man and also for theology. Death is seen as the inevitable consequence of our finitude. Liberal Protestant theology of the 19th century totally denied a cause and effect relationship between sin and physical death. Later Protestant development (W. Pannenberg, J. Moltmann) recognized that finitude does not always mean mortality. In Catholic theology the problem remains open as a subject of enquiry. Our physical death is the result of original sin: if not necessarily in itself as a biological phenomenon, certainly as human death, which we are aware of and which we experience as aggression against our existence. In Christ we receive the hope of definitive immortality and eternal life, though this can in no way be compared with original immortality, which is still at risk of being lost through sin.