Lesson 47 –
Do We Really Inherit Original Sin from Adam and Eve?

The doctrine of original sin is presupposed in a great deal of Scripture, because it concerns how sin and therefore death entered the world, and thus why we need Christ as a redeemer. Therefore, it is not a small matter. It is one of the core doctrines of the faith.

Course Reading

Summa Theologiae I-II q. 82, aa. 1-2 | St. Thomas Aquinas

Summa Theologiae I-II q. 82, aa. 3-4 | St. Thomas Aquinas

Excerpt from the Summa Theologiae q. 82, a. 1:

[H]abit is twofold. The first is a habit whereby power is inclined to an act: thus science and virtue are called habits. In this way original sin is not a habit. The second kind of habit is the disposition of a complex nature, whereby that nature is well or ill disposed to something, chiefly when such a disposition has become like a second nature, as in the case of sickness or health. In this sense original sin is a habit. For it is an inordinate disposition, arising from the destruction of the harmony which was essential to original justice, even as bodily sickness is an inordinate disposition of the body, by reason of the destruction of that equilibrium which is essential to health. Hence it is that original sin is called the "languor of nature" [*Cf. Augustine, In Ps. 118, serm. iii].

Course Listening

Born Broken? Aquinas On Original Sin | Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P.

Aquinas on Original Sin: The Promise of an Interdisciplinary Approach | Abp. Augustine Di Noia, O.P.