Original sin

===Swedenborgianism===
In [[Swedenborgianism]], [[exegesis]] of the first 11 chapters of Genesis from ''The First Church'' has a view that Adam is not an individual person. Rather, he is a symbolic representation of the "Most Ancient Church", having a more direct contact with heaven than all other successive churches.{{sfn|Swedenborg|1749–56|p=410}}<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U3tQJ9j_1ToC&q=Arcana+Coelestia+john+f+potts&pg=PR3 |title=Arcana Coelestia, Vol. 1 of 8 |author=Emanuel Swedenborg |publisher=Forgotten Books |isbn=9781606201077 |access-date=24 January 2017}}</ref> Swedenborg's view of original sin is referred to as "hereditary evil", which passes from generation to generation.{{sfn|Swedenborg|1749–56|p=96, n. 313: "But as to hereditary evil, the case is this. Everyone who commits actual sin thereby induces on himself a nature, and the evil from it is implanted in his children, and becomes hereditary. It thus descends from every parent, from the father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and their ancestors in succession, and is thus multiplied and augmented in each descending posterity, remaining with each person, and being increased in each by his actual sins, and never being dissipated so as to become harmless except in those who are being regenerated by the Lord. Every attentive observer may see evidence of this truth in the fact that the evil inclinations of parents remain visibly in their children, so that one family, and even an entire race, may be thereby distinguished from every other."}} It cannot be completely abolished by an individual man, but can be tempered when someone reforms their own life,{{sfn|Swedenborg|1749–56|p=229, n.719: "There are evils in man [that] must be dispersed while he is being regenerated, that is, which must be loosened and attempered by goods; for no actual and hereditary evil in man can be so dispersed as to be abolished. It still remains implanted; and can only be so far loosened and attempered by goods from the Lord that it does not injure, and does not appear, which is an arcanum hitherto unknown. Actual evils are those that are loosened and attempered, and not hereditary evils; which also is a thing unknown."}} and are thus held accountable only for their own sins.{{sfn|Swedenborg|1749–56|p=336, n.966: "It is to be observed that in the other life no one undergoes any punishment and torture on account of his hereditary evil, but only on account of the actual evils [that] he himself has committed."}}