Page History

...

2. Against this background, or out of this context, suppose one takes seriously the insight – -- forcefully stated by Hartshorne, among others – -- that it is not biology which is in a position to explain the transmission of sin, but, rather, psychiatry (and, as one might add if one were to be informed by Habermas and Apel, the critique of ideology). On the basis of this insight, one could conceivably argue that, while "original sin," like "actual sin(s)" must indeed be understood relative to the individual fully accountable human sinner, what "original sin" refers to is not the free and responsible action(s) of the individual sinner qua fully accountable, which is what we properly mean by her or his "actual sin(s)," but rather whatever reactions to the actions of earlier generations of individual sinners have gone into the formation of this individual sinner prior to the fully accountable action(s) – -- the actual sin(s)whereby alone she or he actually becomes a sinner in her or his own right. In other words, each of us becomes fully accountable only through being acted upon by, and reacting to the actions of, other human beings who are already sinners and who transmit their sin to us through their own actual sin(s). Thus, while it is indeed true that "sin presupposes itself," in the sense that sin cannot be explained by anything except sin, it is also true that the sin which my sin presupposes is not (or not only) my own, but (also) that of the others to whose sinful actions I have always already had to react before I myself ever became fully accountable and, as such, capable of sin in my own right.

...

* * * * * * *
1. To be a sinner is to fall short of the glory of God – -- to be less than one could and should be as a creature created in God's image, and than one would be were it not for the misuse of human freedom involved in being a sinner.

...

6. "Original sin" itself and as such, however, is not the misuse of freedom by others – -- that, on the contrary, could only be the others' own "actual sin(s)" – -- but, rather, whatever is already in me, prior to any of my own actual sin(s), that has been brought about in me by the actual sin(s) of others and that accounts for my presently falling short of God's glory.

...