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The term '''Original Sin''' (or ''first sin'') is used among all Christian churches to define the doctrine surrounding Romans 5:12-21 and 1 Corinthians 15:22, in which Adam is identified as the man whom through death came into the world. How this is interpreted is believed by many Orthodox to be a fundamental difference between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Western Churches. In contrast, modern Roman Catholic theologians would claim that the basic anthropology is actually almost identical, and that the difference is only in the explanation of what happened in the Fall. In the [[Orthodoxy|Orthodox Church]] the term '''[[ancestral sin]]''' (Gr. προπατορικό αμάρτημα) is preferred and is used to define the doctrine of man's "inclination towards sin, a heritage from the sin of our progenitors" and that this is removed through [[baptism]]. St. [[Gregory Palamas]] taught that man's image was tarnished, disfigured, as a consequence of Adam's disobedience.
==Discussion==
In the [[Book of Genesis]], Chapter 3, [[Adam]] and [[Eve]] committed a sin, the ''original sin''. The [[Orthodoxy|Eastern Orthodox]] Church teaches that no one is guilty for the actual sin they committed but rather everyone inherits the consequences of this act; the foremost of this is physical death in this world. This is the reason why the original fathers of the Church over the centuries have preferred the term '''ancestral sin'''. The consequences and penalties of this ancestral act are transferred by means of natural heredity to the entire human race. Since every human is a descendant of Adam then 'no one is free from the implications of this sin' (which is human death) and that the only way to be freed from this is through baptism. While mortality is certainly a result of the Fall, along with this also what is termed "concupiscence" in the writings of St [[Augustine of Hippo]] -- this is the "evil impulse" of Judaism, and in Orthodoxy, we might say this is our "disordered passion." It isn't only that we are born in death, or in a state of distance from God, but also that we are born with disordered passion within us. Orthodoxy would not describe the human state as one of "total depravity" (see [[Cyril Lucaris]] however).
==Sources and further reading==
* [http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070419_un-baptised-infants_en.html The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptized]
* [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arbible/message/34424 The Original Sin/Consequences of the Original Fall - by HG Bishop Kallistos Ware]
* [http://romanity.org/htm/rom.10.en.original_sin_according_to_st._paul.01.htm ORIGINAL SIN ACCORDING TO ST. PAUL - by the late V. Rev. Fr. John S. Romanides]
* [http://www.amazon.com/First-Created-Man-Homilies-Symeon-Theologian/dp/0938635115 The First-Created Man: Seven Homilies by St. Symeon the New Theologian], trans. Seraphim Rose [ISBN:0938635115]
* [http://www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/orthodoxy/articles/2004-hughes-sin.php Ancestral Versus Original Sin: An Overview with Implications for Psychotherapy] by V. Rev. Antony Hughes, M.Div.
==See also==