Alienation and the Lack of Unity: The Results of the Original Sin

Abstract

The article discusses a few essential matters connected with the original sin: from Adam and Eva to the present day. The first part of the article refers to the sin of First Parents described in The Book of Genesis. It is a reminder of concrete and also universal history of the fall of a human, a trial for finding a reason of this event, as well. The second part debates the parallel of Adam-Christ from The St. Paul’s Letter to Roman – it is about the connection of people in the Adam’s sin and in the Redemption of Christ. The third part analyses a well-known medieval Augustine’s debate with Pelagius because a reason of this dispute was the original sin and to be more precise: a degree of its influence on human nature and on a free will. The fourth part of the article reminds that the original sin was a significant theme for The Reformation and for The Council of Trent. The issue of this argue was a relation between the original sin and concupiscence: for the Protestantism that was a relation of identity, for the Catholicism relation of causality; the issue has remained debatable to the present day. And finally, the fifth part of the article discusses in detail the problem of concupiscence as the heaviest ethically result of the original sin.

There were made two valid distinctions in the article. The first one is a methodological distinction, which was made already in the beginning of the article: distinction between the ethical guilt and the ontological result. This differentiation explains in a maximally straight form a mechanism of an influence of the original sin on the entire human race, even on modern people. The second one was made in the two last parts of the article: distinction between the original sin (every sin) and the concupiscence. This differentiation shows that a fight with concupiscence is possible and even necessary to authentic development of a human and rebuilding of interpersonal relations (in the ecumenical aspect: between the Christians), and offers a hope on “the return to the Paradise” (in the ecumenical aspect: recovery of unity of Church in a visible dimension).