Original sin

===Roman Catholicism===
The ''[[Catechism of the Catholic Church]]'' says:

{{Blockquote|By his sin Adam, as the first man, lost the [[original holiness]] he had received from God, not only for himself but for all humans.

Adam and Eve transmitted to their descendants human nature wounded by their own first sin and hence deprived of original holiness and justice; this deprivation is called "original sin".

As a result of original sin, human nature is weakened in its powers, subject to ignorance, suffering and the domination of death, and inclined to sin (this inclination is called "concupiscence").<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1C.HTM |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church – IntraText |website=Vatican.va |access-date=24 January 2017}}</ref>}}

[[Anselm of Canterbury]] wrote: "The sin of Adam was one thing but the sin of children at their birth is quite another, the former was the cause, the latter is the effect."<ref>De conceptu virginali, xxvi</ref> In a child original sin is distinct from the fault of Adam, it is one of its effects. The effects of Adam's sin according to the Catholic Encyclopedia are:

# Death and suffering: "One man has transmitted to the whole human race not only the death of the body, which is the punishment of sin, but even sin itself, which is the death of the soul."
# Concupiscence or inclination to sin: baptism erases original sin but the inclination to sin remains.
# The absence of sanctifying grace in the new-born child is also an effect of the first sin, for Adam, having received holiness and justice from God, lost it not only for himself but also for humanity. Baptism confers original sanctifying grace, lost through the Adam's sin, thus eliminating original sin and any personal sin.{{sfn|Harent|1911}}

The Catholic Church teaches that every human person born on earth is made in the image of God.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1B.HTM |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church – IntraText |website=Vatican.va |access-date=24 January 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ignatius.com/Products/MIG-P/man-the-image-of-god.aspx |title=Man, The Image of God Paperback – Christoph Cardinal Schoenborn : Ignatius Press |website=Ignatius.com |access-date=24 January 2017 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231629/http://www.ignatius.com/Products/MIG-P/man-the-image-of-god.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref> Within man "is both the powerful surge toward the good because we are made in the image of God, and the darker impulses toward evil because of the effects of Original Sin".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/morality/ |title=Morality |website=Usccb.org |date=14 August 2015 |access-date=24 January 2017}}</ref> Furthermore, it explicitly denies that guilt is inherited from anyone, maintaining that instead humanity inherits its own fallen nature. In this it differs from the Calvinist position that each person actually inherits Adam's guilt, and teaches instead that "original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants{{nbsp}}[...] but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man".<ref name="vatican.va"/>

The Catholic Church has always held baptism to be for the remission of sins including the original sin, and, as mentioned in ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'', 403,<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1C.HTM ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'', 403]</ref> infants too have traditionally been baptized, though not held guilty of any actual personal sin. The sin that through baptism is remitted for them could only be original sin. Baptism confers original sanctifying grace that erases original sin and any actual personal sin. The first comprehensive theological explanation of this practice of baptizing infants, guilty of no actual personal sin, was given by Augustine of Hippo, not all of whose ideas on original sin have been adopted by the Catholic Church – the church has condemned the interpretation of some of his ideas by certain leaders{{who|reason=Which ideas and which leaders?|date=November 2022}} of the [[Protestant Reformation]].

The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' explains that in "yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a ''personal sin'', but this sin affected ''the human nature'' that they would then transmit in a ''fallen state.''{{nbsp}}[...] Original sin is called "sin" only in an analogical sense: it is a sin 'contracted' and not 'committed' – a state and not an act" (''Catechism of the Catholic Church'', 404).<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1C.HTM ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'', 404]</ref> This "state of deprivation of the original holiness and justice{{nbsp}}[...] transmitted to the descendants of Adam along with human nature" (''Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church'', 76)<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/compendium_ccc/documents/archive_2005_compendium-ccc_en.html#The%20Profession%20of%20the%20Christian%20Faith ''Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church'', 76]</ref> involves no personal responsibility or personal guilt on their part (cf. ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'', 405). Personal responsibility and guilt were Adam's, who because of his sin, was unable to pass on to his descendants a human nature with the holiness with which it would otherwise have been endowed, in this way implicating them in his sin. The doctrine of original sin thus does not impute the sin of the father to his children, but merely states that they inherit from him a "human nature deprived of original holiness and justice", which is "transmitted by propagation to all mankind".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Catechism of the Catholic Church - IntraText, 404|url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1C.HTM|website=www.vatican.va|access-date=2020-05-06}}</ref>

In the theology of the [[Catholic Church]], original sin is the absence of original holiness and justice into which humans are born, distinct from the [[actual sin]]s that a person commits. The absence of sanctifying grace or holiness in the new-born child is an effect of the first sin, for Adam, having received holiness and justice from God, lost it not only for himself but also for humanity.{{sfn|Harent|1911}} This teaching explicitly states that "original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants".<ref name="vatican.va" /> In other words, human beings do not bear any "original guilt" from Adam's particular sin, which is his alone. The prevailing view, also held in Eastern Orthodoxy, is that human beings bear no guilt for the sin of Adam. The Catholic Church teaches: "By our first parents' sin, the devil has acquired a certain domination over man, even though man remains free."<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p1s2c1p7.htm#III Item 407] in section 1.2.1.7.</ref>

The Catholic doctrine of the [[Immaculate Conception]] of [[Mary, the mother of Jesus|Mary]] is that Mary was conceived free from original sin: "the most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin".<ref>Pius IX, ''Ineffabilis Deus'' (1854) quoted in ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'', 491 [https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p122a3p2.htm#490]</ref> The doctrine sees her as an exception to the general rule that human beings are not immune from the reality of original sin.

As Mary was conceived without original sin, this statement opens to the fourth Marian dogma of the [[Assumption of Mary#catholic teaching|Assumption of Mary to Heaven]] in body and soul, according to the unchangeable dogmatic definition publicly proclaimed by Pope [[Pius XII]]. The Assumption to Heaven, with no corruption of the body, was made possible by Mary's being born without the original sin, while, according to [[Aquinas]], other persons need to wait for the [[universal resurrection|final resurrection of the flesh]] in order to get the sanctification of the whole human being.<ref>Saint [[Thomas Aquinas]], ''Summa Theologiae'', III, q. 27. a. 2 referenced in {{cite book | author = Norberto Del Prado | url = https://archive.org/details/divusthomasetbul00norb/page/n19 | title = Divus Thomas et bulla dogmatica "Ineffabilis Deus" | page = xv | language = la | year = 1919 | via = [[Internet Archive|archive.org]] | archive-url = https://archive.today/20181205210752/https://archive.org/stream/divusthomasetbul00norb/divusthomasetbul00norb_djvu.txt | archive-date = 5 December 2018 | url-status = live}}, with ''[[Imprimatur#Catholic Church|imprimatur]]'' di Friar Leonardus Lehu, Vic. Magistri Generalis, O.P.</ref>

====Post-conciliar developments====
Soon after the [[Second Vatican Council]], biblical theologian [[Herbert Haag]] raised the question: "Is original sin in Scripture?".{{sfn|Haag|1966}} According to his exegesis, Genesis 2:25<ref>{{bibleverse|Genesis|2:25}}</ref> would indicate that Adam and Eve were created from the beginning naked of the [[divine grace]], an originary grace that, then, they would never have had and even less would have lost due to the subsequent events narrated. On the other hand, while supporting a continuity in the Bible about the absence of [[preternatural]] gifts ({{lang-la|dona praeternaturalia}}){{sfn|Haag|1966|pp=11, 49–50}} with regard to the [[Serpents in the Bible#Eden|ophitic event]], Haag never makes any reference to the discontinuity of the loss of access to the [[Tree of life (biblical)|tree of life]]. Genesis 2:17<ref>{{bibleverse|Genesis|2:17}}</ref> states that, if one ate the fruit of the [[tree of the knowledge of good and evil]], one would surely die, and the adverb indicates that, by avoiding this type of choice, one would have the possibility but not the certainty of accessing to the other tree. Therefore, in 1970 Latin American biblical scholar [[Carlos Mesters]] wondered if "Eden [is] golden age or goad to action", [[wikt:protology|protology]] or [[eschatology]], nostalgia for an idealized past or hope for something that has yet to happen as it is claimed by [[Book of Revelation|Revelation]] 2:7<ref>{{bibleverse|Revelation|2:7}}</ref> and Revelation 22:2.<ref>{{bibleverse|Revelation|22:2}}</ref>{{sfn|Mesters|1970|pp=}}

Some warn against taking Genesis 3 too literally. They take into account that "God had the church in mind before the foundation of the world" (as in [[Epistle to the Ephesians|Ephesians]] 1:4)<ref>{{bibleverse|Ephesians|1:4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Holy Spirit and the Trinity (Part 1) (Sermon)|url=https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Audio.Details/ID/463/Holy-Spirit-Trinity-Part-1.htm|website=www.bibletools.org|access-date=2020-05-06}}</ref> as also in [[Second Epistle to Timothy|2 Timothy]] 1:9:<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Timothy|1:9}}</ref> "...his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus ''before'' the world began."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Before the World Began|url=https://www.icr.org/article/before-world-began/|publisher=[[Institute for Creation Research]] |access-date=2020-05-06}}</ref> In his 1986 book ''{{'}}In the Beginning...{{'}}'', [[Pope Benedict XVI]] referred to the term "original sin" as "misleading and unprecise".{{sfn|Ratzinger|1986|p=72}} Benedict does not require a literal interpretation of Genesis, or of the origin of evil, but writes: "How was this possible, how did it happen? This remains obscure.{{nbsp}}[...] Evil remains mysterious. It has been presented in great images, as does chapter 3 of Genesis, with the vision of two trees, of the serpent, of sinful man."<ref>{{Cite web|title=General Audience of 3 December 2008: Saint Paul (15). The Apostle's teaching on the relation between Adam and Christ {{!}} BENEDICT XVI|url=http://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20081203.html |website=[[vatican.va]] |access-date=2020-05-06}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Pope ponders original sin, speaks about modern desire for change|url=http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope_ponders_original_sin_speaks_about_modern_desire_for_change|publisher=[[Catholic News Agency]] |access-date=2020-05-06}}</ref>