doctrine #4 - humanity

What does the meaning of ‘Original Sin’ imply for Christian engagement with the societies we inhabit?

The biblical truths that we are created by God, both imago Dei and imago trinitus* logically lead us to perfect examples for us to aim toward – both in the perfect man (Jesus), and the perfect relationship (the Trinitarian Godhead.) We therefore have, according to Kevin Vanhoozer, three ethical imperatives: to aim for righteousness, to work and steward creation, and to rest and feast (Gunton, 165.) However, in realising that “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23) surely we must also accept that this is a hypothetical – and one we are doomed to miss.

But consider the Pelagian controversy (McGrath, 362-8.) As humans we are used to choice: what to wear, what to eat, who to talk to, what to buy. Choosing how to act or to relate to people falls naturally into the linear stream of decisions we make – and so, when society keeps inconveniently plumping for the most negative option every time, as Christians we find ourselves either peering down from our ivory towers in despair, or - if we dare admit it – languishing in a pit of self-pity, beating our chests in realization that surely we will never be good enough, different enough, strong enough. Pelagius taught that choose equally between good and evil. However, Augustine of Hippo disputed that this is simply not the case. Because of Original Sin, we are beings limited in our free will by our inherently sinful natures. We cannot, as Pelagius believed, just choose goodness – our stained hearts are not capable. In truth, as Luther insisted (McGrath, 374) “God is active, and humans are passive, in justification.” We are justified purely “by grace through faith” – a perspective, which when applied to how we view society around us, might not only aid us in relating to those we would seek to save, but might just help us save ourselves.


Bibliography
Holy Bible, New International Version (London: Hodder & Staughton, 1998)
K Vanhoozer, ‘Human being, individual and social’ in C Gunton, (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Christian Doctrine, (Cambridge: CUP, 1998) pp. 158-88.
A McGrath, Christian Thelogy: An Introduction, fourth ed. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007) pp348-74.

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*Editor's note: I couldn't find a succinct enough definition of this to link to, so I will quickly highlight that this term refers to "the image of the trinity" - and therefore, that we are not only created in God's image, but furthermore in the image of the trinitiarian relationship. So although human relationships cannot compare, through the process of sanctification our relations to each other, and more fundamentally to God, will grow to reflect how the three 'forms' of the trinity relate to each other - that relationship being perfection.