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Concerning Original Sin

According to Reinhold Niebuhr, the perfection before the fall which is meant by "original righteousness" means "perfection before the act," i. e., before actual sin(s).

Question: Could one say, perhaps, that what is properly meant by "original sin" is, correspondingly, something like "imperfection before the act," i. e., before the actual sin(s) relative to which the distinction between "original sin" and "actual sin(s)" can alone be made?

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1. Some years ago, I read Karl Rahner's argument to the effect that "original sin" needs to be understood in an analogical sense relative to "actual sin." Both before and after that time, I have resisted such teaching on the ground that sin which is not actual, in the sense of not being the result of misusing my own freedom, cannot be said to be my sin in any sense of the word, analogical or literal. Thus I have usually interpreted "original sin" as referring to my original possibility of inauthentic existence in contrast to "original righteousness," which refers to my original possibility of authentic existence. But to this interpretation there is the obvious objection that it makes original sin merely a possibility, despite the fact that this is hardly how the concept has been understood in the main theological tradition.

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