Collateral Bloggage

With all the reading I do, it probably wouldn’t hurt me to do book reviews now and then.  Besides, it gives me an excuse not to come up with an original topic for Theology Thursday if I’ve got a theology book to review…

Original Sin: A Cultural History, by Alan Jacobs addresses a history of thought regarding the question “Unde hoc malum?” (”Whence this evil?” - you, too, can learn cool Latin phrases by reading this kind of book).

This is a book I picked up back in July, then had to return to the library because it wasn’t gripping me the way the other three books I was reading were. Actually, my reading list was just overloaded. Hence, I returned it to the library and only got back to it a couple of weeks ago. I’m glad I did.

The book is not a treatment of the Biblical evidence for the doctrine of Original Sin, but rather a survey of Christian (and other) thought about our apparent sinful natures.  He pulls from many varied sources, including Confucius, Augustine, Milton, and even Rousseau, discussing how these thinkers dealt with the idea of Original Sin.

Even though Jacobs spent a good deal of time discussing Augustine’s views and his debates with Pelagius and Julian, much of the book dealt with the voices in Western culture who tried to explain away our natures.  One after another, the walls built up to explain away the Fall have crumbled.

I didn’t read this book quickly.  And yet, it’s extremely readable.  I didn’t find my mind wandering when I’d settle in to read a few pages.  The chapters were too long (I like them short), so progress felt really slow.  I was always surprised that I’d sit down to read, feel like I was really making headway, then realize I’d only read six or eight pages.  I think my mind was engaged and had to digest what I was reading, and that resulted in slower progress than usual.  But I wouldn’t call it a slow book.

I’ve grappled a bit with the doctrine of Original Sin, and I imagine I’ll keep thinking about it.  There’s no denying that we’re not just all “okay.”  But I still don’t really know what Original Sin means.  For me, it’s not enough to simply say, “Well, our natures seem to be messed up, therefore Original Sin must be true.”  Because that doesn’t really explain what it is.  Are we really born guilty and in need of purification (the justification for Infant Baptism)?  Or are we simply born with a tendency to sin but incur no actual debt until we actually sin?

Was Christ born with Original Sin?  Did Mary need to be born without it (and here we have the Immaculate Conception) for Jesus to also be preserved from it?  Did he need to have no earthly father (in other words, was the Virgin Birth neccessary)?  These are questions I still have.  Mr. Jacobs gave me more to think about, which is a good thing, but I didn’t find many answers.  But I’m okay with that for now.