Program / Course 10: Salvation and Eschatology / Lesson 1.4
What you will learn
- Explain what Eastern Christians mean by ancestral sin and why they prefer that term.
- Describe the role of death and corruption in the Eastern account of the fall.
- Compare the Eastern and Western readings of Romans 5:12.
- State fairly where the two traditions agree and where they differ.
The big idea
Eastern Christians, especially in the Orthodox Church, speak of ancestral sin more than original sin. They teach that Adam’s fall brought death and corruption to all human beings, weakened the human will and made sin almost unavoidable. They do not teach that infants inherit Adam’s guilt. Each person answers for his or her own sins, though no one stands outside the damage. The Eastern account therefore sees the human problem first as mortality and bondage, and the remedy first as Christ’s victory over death.
Key terms
- Ancestral sin (progonikon hamartema)
- The Greek expression often used in Orthodox writing for the sin of the first parents and its effects on their descendants.
- Mortality
- In Eastern thought, the condition of being subject to death and decay, which makes sin more likely and is itself a result of the fall.
- Corruption (phthora)
- The Greek word for decay, used by the fathers for the condition of fallen creation. It is the opposite of incorruption (aphtharsia), given in Christ.
- Theosis
- Also called deification. The process of sharing, by grace, in the life of God. Orthodox writers see this as the purpose of creation.
- Patristic
- Having to do with the church fathers, the Christian writers of the first several centuries.
- Free will (autexousion)
- The Greek term for self-determination, which Eastern writers insist is not destroyed by the fall.
- Resurrection
- In the East, the center of the doctrine of salvation, since it answers the problem of death.
Background
The Eastern churches share the Bible, the creeds and the first seven ecumenical councils with the West, yet their account of the fall developed along a different line. Greek writers such as Irenaeus, Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa and John Chrysostom read Genesis and Romans without the pressure of the Pelagian controversy that shaped Augustine. They also read Romans 5:12 in Greek. The result is a doctrine that agrees with the West on the reality and universality of the fall, but describes the problem and the remedy in different terms.
A word of caution about the contrast. Eastern and Western Christians sometimes describe each other from a distance, and the picture can become a caricature. Some Orthodox writers today say that the East was influenced by Augustine more than is sometimes admitted, and some Western theologians say that Augustine’s actual view is subtler than its later versions. This lesson states the Eastern teaching as Orthodox writers themselves state it, and notes where scholars debate how far the difference goes.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Created for growth, not finished
Irenaeus pictured Adam and Eve as childlike, created good but not yet mature, meant to grow toward God. Many Eastern writers follow this picture. Humanity was made for life and communion and was to rise from the image of God to the likeness through obedience.
On this view the fall was a failure to grow, a turning from the source of life. It was not the loss of some finished perfection, as in some later Western pictures of Adam. The difference affects how salvation is understood: Eastern teaching sees it as bringing human beings to the goal they were always meant to reach.
Step 2: Death as the great enemy
Athanasius, in On the Incarnation, argued that when human beings turned from God they began to fall back toward nothingness. Death and decay came to reign. The word did not simply punish, it ruled. Paul speaks the same way: “death reigned from Adam to Moses” (Romans 5:14) and “the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26).
The result is a cycle. Mortality brings fear, anxiety and the desire to grasp at life through self-preservation and power, and these in turn lead to sin. In this reading, the Eastern tradition holds that human beings inherit mortality from Adam and so inherit a strong tendency to sin. Many Orthodox writers add that this tendency is not guilt.
Step 3: Guilt and responsibility
Orthodox teaching holds that each person is guilty of his or her own sins and not of Adam’s. Infants are baptized, but the usual Orthodox explanation is that baptism joins them to Christ and to the church, and heals the wound of ancestral sin. They are not baptized to remove a personal guilt.
The Eastern fathers insist that fallen humanity keeps free will. The will is weakened and dragged by passions, but not destroyed. Salvation therefore involves synergy, the cooperation of divine grace and human freedom, in which grace always has the initiative. The next module develops the point.
Step 4: Romans 5:12 in the East
Greek writers read eph’ hō pantes hēmarton as ‘because all sinned,’ or understood the phrase to mean ‘on account of which (death) all sinned.’ Both readings treat death as the thing that spreads. John Chrysostom, in his homilies on Romans, takes death to be the cause of widespread sin and stresses that sinners are punished for their own sins.
The Latin ‘in whom all sinned’ is not a possible reading of the Greek, according to most modern scholars, including many Western ones. Catholic scholars today often agree with the point. They add that the Western doctrine does not depend on this verse alone, and they cite other texts and the church’s practice.
Step 5: The remedy in the East
Because the Eastern account makes death the root problem, Eastern preaching of salvation stresses Christ’s victory over death. By taking human nature, dying and rising, Christ heals the nature that fell. The Orthodox Easter hymn, “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death,” gathers the theme.
Baptism, the Eucharist and the whole sacramental life are the means by which a person is joined to the risen Christ. Salvation in this reading is not mainly a verdict but a restored life, moving toward theosis, sharing in God’s life by grace while remaining a creature.
- What difference does it make to the doctrine if death is seen as the root problem instead of guilt?
- How can a person inherit a weakness without inheriting a blame?
- Why might Eastern writers have stressed that free will survives the fall?
- Is the difference between East and West in the facts, or in which facts come first?
- What does an Eastern Christian mean by saying that the fall interrupted growth?
- What would a Western Christian want to ask an Orthodox Christian about the way Christ’s death removes sin?
Examples
Why a baby is baptized
An Orthodox priest explains to new parents that their infant is baptized and chrismated in the same service, and receives Communion. He says the child is joined to Christ and to the church and is given the Spirit. He does not say the baby is guilty of Adam’s sin. A Catholic parent listening says that the practice looks much like her own church’s, though the explanation sounds different. (A constructed example.)
Athanasius on the need for the incarnation
Athanasius asks what God should do when human beings had turned to corruption. Repentance alone could not heal decay, he argues, and only the Word, who is life itself, could reverse it. The argument shows why the Eastern account of the fall so naturally leads to a focus on incarnation and resurrection.
Different perspectives
Orthodox
Ancestral sin is the inheritance of mortality, corruption and a weakened nature from Adam. It leaves human beings inclined to sin but not guilty of Adam’s act. Each person answers for his or her own sins. Salvation is healing from death and the restoration of communion with God.
Catholic
Catholic teaching holds that Adam’s sin is transmitted to his descendants as a state of lost holiness. Catholic theologians commonly say that this is not a personal fault. Many note that Trent’s teaching on original sin and the Eastern account have more in common than their vocabularies suggest, since both affirm a damaged nature and the need of Christ.
Lutheran and Reformed
Lutheran and Reformed teachers hold that the Eastern view understates human guilt and inability. They hold that Scripture speaks of the entire person as dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1) and that mere weakness does not match that language. They regard original guilt as taught in Romans 5.
Arminian and Wesleyan
Wesleyan teachers often find the Eastern writers congenial. Wesley himself read the Greek fathers, and his teaching on the renewal of the image of God and on Christian perfection resembles Eastern ideas, though Wesley’s own sources and emphases were not identical to Orthodox teaching.
Scholarly views
Historians note that the contrast between East and West was sharpened in the modern period. Some argue that the Greek fathers did hold some form of inherited guilt, while others hold they did not. There is wide agreement that they did not develop the Augustinian doctrine.
Why it matters
For an Orthodox Christian, the question of what is wrong with humanity is answered first with death, corruption and the bondage of the passions. For a Western Christian the first answer is usually sin and guilt. Understanding both lets a student read their disagreements more accurately. It also explains why Eastern worship is so full of the language of life and resurrection, and why Western preaching so often speaks of forgiveness and verdict.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: The Orthodox Church denies original sin altogether.
Correction: Orthodox teaching affirms the fall, the universal damage and the need for Christ. It denies the Western idea of inherited guilt, and it often prefers the word ancestral sin.
Misunderstanding: The Eastern view makes human beings naturally good.
Correction: The fathers teach that the fall brought death, corruption and bondage to the passions. Free will survives, but it cannot restore life by itself. Christ is needed.
Misunderstanding: The Western and Eastern doctrines are completely different.
Correction: Both teach a universal fall, a damaged nature and salvation by Christ. The contrast concerns guilt, emphasis and vocabulary, and scholars debate how large it is.
Misunderstanding: Augustine is rejected by the Orthodox.
Correction: Augustine is honored as a saint in some Orthodox churches, and he is read with respect. His teaching on inherited guilt is not accepted by most Orthodox writers, and some of his other views are questioned.
Knowledge check
What is ancestral sin?
It is the Eastern term for the sin of the first parents and its consequences for all descendants. Those consequences are chiefly mortality, corruption and a weakened will that inclines to sin. Orthodox teaching does not say that descendants inherit Adam’s personal guilt. Each person is responsible for the sins that he or she commits.
How does Athanasius describe the effect of the fall?
In On the Incarnation Athanasius teaches that when human beings turned from God they began to fall back toward non-being, so that death and decay took hold of them. Repentance alone could not reverse corruption. Only the Word, who is life itself, could renew humanity, which is why he became human.
How do Greek writers read Romans 5:12?
They read the Greek phrase as ‘because all sinned’ or as saying that death spread to all, on account of which all sinned. Chrysostom, for example, took death to be the cause of widespread sin and held that each is punished for his own sins. This differs from the Latin reading ‘in whom all sinned’.
Why do Orthodox Christians baptize infants if they do not teach inherited guilt?
They explain that baptism joins a child to Christ, to the church and to the life of the Spirit, and heals the wound of ancestral sin. Baptism is the entry to the new life, not only the removal of a guilt. Infants are baptized and chrismated and receive Communion in the same service.
Think it through
- If death is the main problem, what does the resurrection of Christ mean in your own words?
- Does the Eastern emphasis on growth seem to you to fit the Bible’s story, and where does it strain?
- How might a person’s picture of the problem affect which Bible passages they notice first?
Independent assignment
East and West on Romans 5:12
In your notebook, write 400 to 600 words. Describe in your own words the Eastern account of ancestral sin and the Western account of original sin, in two separate paragraphs, each stated so that a member of that tradition would agree. Then list two points on which they agree and two on which they differ. Finish by writing the question you would most like to ask an Orthodox Christian and the question you would most like to ask a Catholic.
Further study
- Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation of the Word Read the opening chapters on creation, the fall and corruption.
- Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies Look for the picture of Adam as created for growth.
- Timothy (Kallistos) Ware, The Orthodox Church Read the sections on man and on salvation for a modern Orthodox statement.
- Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church Read the chapters on the image and likeness and on the Eastern doctrine of grace.
- Gregory of Nyssa, Dogmatic Treatises, etc. (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 5) Read the passages on human nature and the fall.
- Romans 5:14 Death reigned from Adam to Moses.
- 1 Corinthians 15:26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
- Hebrews 2:14 Christ shares flesh and blood to destroy the power of death.