Hamartiology

A number of Christian theologians and philosophers have been critical of overly moralizing approaches to the doctrine of sin, but nearly all Christian thinkers maintain that moral fault is necessary or sufficient for sin to obtain. Call this the “Moral Consensus.” I begin by clarifying the relevance of impurities to the biblical cataloguing of sins. I then present four extensional problems for the Moral Consensus on sin, based on the biblical catalogue of sins: (1) moral over-demandingness, (2) agential unfairness, (3) moral repugnance, and (4) moral atrocity. Next, I survey several partial solutions to these problems, suggested by the recent philosophical literature. Then I evaluate two largely unexplored solutions: (a) genuine sin dilemmas and (b) defeasible sinfulness. I argue that (a) creates more problems than it solves and that, while (b) is well-motivated and solves or eases each of the above problems, (b) leaves many biblical ordinances about sin morally misleading, creating (5) a pedagogical problem of evil. I conclude by arguing that (5) places hefty explanatory burdens on those who would appeal to (b) to resolve the four extensional problems discussed in this paper. So Christian thinkers may need to consider a more radical separation of sin and moral fault.

Resumo da obra O nascimento do trágico: de Schiller a Nietzsche (2006, p. 23-49), de Roberto Machado.
A poética da tragédia. A questão da poética da tragédia, menciona Peter Szondi, inicia com um embate conceitual entre dois autores de épocas e interesses distintos: Aristóteles e Schelling. Aristóteles lida com uma poética da tragédia, esta, de caráter mais empírico, observa os efeitos da tragédia (como a catarse), a arte trágica, mas não a ideia de tragédia. Sua influência transcendeu sua época e região, sendo piamente importante para o classicismo francês e para a Alemanha do século XVIII, com destaque para Schelling, sua filosofia do trágico e, ao período idealista, tanto quanto ao pós-idealista. Assim, para essa questão da poética da tragédia, destacam-se, para épocas e perspectivas diferentes: Aristóteles, Corneille e Lessing.

Christians, more than ever, need a basic introduction to Bible doctrine that is systematic and true to Scripture. This book is a popular introduction to the study of Bible doctrine firmly in the evangelical tradition. Each chapter covers a biblical doctrine, stresses its doctrinal importance and inter-connectedness to formulating a Christian worldview. The study questions provided help reinforce the material and make it usable even for a formal study of Bible doctrine. It is ideal for personal study and in groups for the home, church, school or ministry environment.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1518707378

http://bastionbooks.com/shop/survey-of-bible-doctrine/

Doczesne skutki grzechu nie są wszystkim, co sprawia, że ludzie żyjący bez Boga znajdują się w bardzo niekorzystnej sytuacji. Gdyby bowiem związane to było z naszym doczesnym losem, to możnaby to jeszcze jakoś przeżyć.
Jest coś o wiele gorszego, mianowicie wieczne skutki grzechu. Rozwinięcie tego zagadnienia znajdziemy w 6 i 7 rozdziale tej książki. Chciałbym jednak podać kilka tekstów, które uświadomią nam ostateczne konsekwencje grzechu.
Rz. 6:23a mówi o tym, że zapłatą za grzech jest śmierć. I wcale nie chodzi tutaj o coś w rodzaju unicestwienia, lecz o wieczne oddzielenie od Boga – takie jest bowiem jedno ze znaczeń śmierci. W Mt. 25:41, 46: Wtedy powie i tym po lewicy: Idźcie precz ode mnie, przeklęci, w ogień wieczny, zgotowany diabłu i jego aniołom ... I odejdą ci na kaźń wieczną. Wieczny ogień nazwany jest wieczną kaźnią. Gdyby człowiek miał zostać po śmierci unicestwiony, to „ogień“ czy „kaźń“ nie byłyby nazwane wiecznymi. Po cóż by ten ogień miał się na wieki palić? Po cóż miałaby istnieć wieczna kaźń?

The paper is analyzed the presence of Aristotelian Rhetoric in homilies by Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nazianzus. Only homilies regarding wealth and poverty were evaluated. Primary investigation focused on the species of Rhetoric. Secondary research focused upon the use of ancient Greek rhetorical devices within the species of Rhetoric.

Augustine is known as the great theologian of sin. For this he has been celebrated as a realist and criticized as a pessimist. What modern readers often miss is the deeply humane source and character of Augustine's views about sin. We tend to think of Augustine as an observer of humanity whose setting in the midst of the slow demise of an empire provided ample material for reflection on the darker side of life. But Augustine's doctrines of sin and evil were less a product of empirical observation than that picture suggests. Rather, he began with a doctrine of grace and a conception of the good. His ideas about evil and sin were driven by those commitments and laced with compassion for the plight of all those whose lives are a disappointment to them (though also with scorn for those who are self-satisfied).

A key argument in this chapter is that Augustine’s views about sin and evil are derived from his views about grace and goodness. Given his ways of thinking about the latter, the former follow. Keeping this fact in mind may or may not make Augustine’s views easier for modern readers to love, but it can help to avoid some common misunderstandings. A second major contention is that Augustine’s ontology of evil as a privation should shape the way we understand Augustine’s claims about sin. This point is developed in conversation with Augustine’s doctrine of original sin, which applies his privation account to moral psychology, and in conversation with Augustine’s doctrine of primal sin, which has more in common with his understanding of original sin than is commonly realized.

In Romans 5:12-21 comparison is made between the first Adam and the last Adam, between Adam the man and Jesus the Christ. This comparison reveals marked contrast between the two. The purpose behind this comparison and contrast is to reveal how believers in Jesus Christ can be made free from the penalty of sin. This paper will clarify the difference between Jesus and Adam demonstrating that through the superior actions of Jesus, God is able to righteously justify sinners. Christ’s superior actions are clearly seen through three revelations made in this text. While these are not new revelations, they are integral to Paul’s argument.

T.F. Torrance (1913-2007) has been known as “one of the most significant English-
speaking theologians of the twentieth century.”1 Elmer Coyler says that there is a “growing consensus that Thomas F. Torrance is on of the premier theologians in the second half of the twentieth century.”2 Kye Won Lee calls him the “most consistent evangelical theologian in our times.”3 Having died recently, not much work has been done on his theology, but if these are the things that are being said about him then we must carry the torch as theologians and do what we can to understand his theology and help others know about him. Since I do not have the space to discuss the development of all of his theology this paper will be focused on his theology of Christ’s assumption of our fallen humanity.

For more like this follow my blog: http://laptoptheologian.wordpress.com/

A recent proposal for a post-metaphysical re-imagination of God has come from Irish philosopher Richard Kearney in his widely acclaimed monograph, The God who may be: A hermeneutics of religion (2001). Writing as a philosopher, and approaching his subject matter mainly by means of phenomenology and hermeneutic returns to biblical texts, Kearney invites theologians to contribute to the discussion from a specifically theological point of view. It is the intention of this thesis to accept Kearney’s invitation and address both the challenges and opportunities posed to Christian theology by such a post-metaphysical re-reading of God.
Specifically, the thesis investigates the implications of post-metaphysical reimaginings of God for the theological categories of hamartiology and soteriology. When metaphysical assumptions no longer convince, how may we begin to reimagine the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, as well as salvation offered to a “fallen” humanity? The thesis proposes that a hermeneutical re-reading of certain counter-traditions in Scripture may assist the Church explore new ways forward. Specifically, such traditions may enable believers to traverse the polar opposites of atheism (the necessary death of the metaphysical God) on the one hand, and philosophically ignorant repetitions of theological formulations that no longer hold water, on the other, since both of these polarised options are undesirable on their extremities.
The methodology that the thesis applies is based on hermeneutical re-readings of biblical narratives and traditions. It re-engages those voices in the history of interpretation of biblical texts that offered alternative possibilities to the metaphysical way in which God (or sin and salvation) has traditionally been imagined. As such, we attempt an archaeology of the yetser, an Old Testament concept of imagination, and pay special attention to its Talmudic reinterpretation. The Gospel narratives of the Annunciation and Transfiguration, as well as the window that Song of Songs opens on the metaphor of the desire of God also receives special mention.
What results from this approach is, first, yet another deconstruction of the Augustinian formulation of original sin, as well as an eschatological reinterpretation of the Christ event in terms of the messianic Kingdom of God. Christ, who submits his yetser to the will of the Father in an act of worshipful surrender, becomes the perfect embodiment of the Word of God to a humanity whose yetser is perpetually put in service of itself in an act of idolatry. The enabling of the Kingdom of God in Jesus, who embodies the human telos, captures the human imagination and transfigures humanity through the existential experience of transcendence which breaks into its concrete reality through the Christ-event and its retelling. In this way, realising eschatology is possibilised through the imagination. Christ as prototype of the divinely intended telos of humanity becomes an existential possibility via the transfiguration, enacted by the imagination. This enables humanity to become co-creators with God of his new creation, or Kingdom of God.
Such an interpretation proposes an eschatological approach to God (a God of posse) as an alternative to the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnicausal God of metaphysics (the God of esse). Whereas the God of esse faces the discrediting of philosophy, is ever haunted by the conundrum of theodicy, and is a God torn between his love for and his judgment of a humankind caught in a perpetually sinful state, the God of posse captures the free yetser of humankind and ever calls creation forward to its fulfilment in God’s Messianic Kingdom of love and justice.

Overview This course is the first in a two-course sequence that introduces students to the core topics and methods of Christian systematic theology. Although special emphasis is placed on the Anglican tradition, students encounter the central theologians and theological perspectives necessary for an adequate foundation in Christian theology. In this first course, the theological topics considered are: God, creation, Trinity, christology, theological anthropology, sin and salvation, grace, and pneumatology. The course is taught as a mixture of lecture and seminar, with the instructor presenting material at the start of each session that is then discussed by the class. Active participation in class discussion, writing assignments consisting of responses to class readings, and three short synthesis papers, also based on class readings, are the central requirements.

"An examination of the relation between redemption and sin in Julian of Norwich through the lens of the parable of the lord and the servant--Revelation 14, Chapter 51 of her "Showings."

Instead of resolving soteriological debates around universalism vs. orthodoxy, this paper takes its cue from Julian, who finds an answer to her struggle with the conflicting accounts of sin and redemption in Mystery, which is not the same place as the question with which she began. And it is the space within this Mystery from where she can strikingly confidently say that "All shall be well."

The paper begins with a brief introduction to the enigmatic nature of Julian's writing and move into more basic background for those unfamiliar with the 14th century English mystic and anchoress. After examining the original vision of the lord and the servant, we move to see Dame Julian's two meanings of the parable--servant as Adam and servant as Christ--and ask her those aspects that make the two meanings continually unified--including the beautiful and non-blaming gaze of God, and the unity of the servant.

The two meanings and two unifying points emphasize different aspects of Julian's thought--the "divine" and "human" perspectives--which contributes to the various positions of scholars who debate her orthodoxy regarding heaven and hell, the Fall, and her potential belief in universal salvation. This paper does not argue for either of the camps, but navigates another route per Julian's lead on finding distinction in the unified gaze and the unified servant yet moving beyond through the "three comforts" that were brought to Julian. These comforts encompass the partial perspectives, allowing Julian to navigate the human view of her sinfulness (as upheld as orthodox by the Church), the divine perspective of blamelessness and her hopeful truth that "all shall be well," and a holistic comfort implying an entirety and shrouded in Mystery only known to the Second Person.

Yet she tastes it: "Wouldst thou know thy Lord's meaning in this thing? Be well aware: love was His meaning. Who showed it thee? Love. What showed He thee? Love. Why did He show it thee? For love."

"

Religious and secular groups alike have long marginalized those who practice “kinky sex.” These discourses of bodily control have been deconstructed and proven faulty. However, this proposal goes further than mere deconstruction and exposes the gaping hole under this new deconstruction: what does a doctrine of sin look like for kink practitioners? This gaping hole is lubed and ready to be filled. According to a kinky doctrine, sin is violating consent and obstructing escape, the failure to accept limits, and the external essentialism of identity. This kinky theology of sin will not only be useful for members of the kink community but also for individuals from a wide range of identities and practices.

In this book, Will Timmins provides a close rereading of Romans 7 within its literary-argumentative context and offers a fresh and compelling solution to the identity of the ‘I’ in this text. Challenging existing paradigms, which fail to provide both literary coherence and theological plausibility, he develops his own positive theory concerning the ‘I’. Along the way he also re-examines a number of key texts within the letter which have hitherto not been given due weight within the scholarly discussion.
This study offers a fresh and satisfying solution to one of the Bible’s most notorious cruxes and contributes to our understanding of the Apostle Paul’s thought. It will be of interest to all scholars and students within the fields of biblical studies and Christian theology.

This essay considers what might first appear to be a minor theological problem in the major work of Dante’s mentor, and shows that it indeed poses a conundrum and a riddle to be solved. Taking up Augustine’s commentary on Christ’s three resurrection miracles – in the house, outside the gate, and in the sepulchre – I note that in his Tresor Brunetto retains the first of these locations but revises the second to “in the doorway of the house” and the third to “in the street.” Ruling out a traditional “source” for these deviations, I ask: Are these changes of scenery significant – a trivial memory lapse, subtly subversive, or ringing a change? Ultimately, I propose an underlying shift in perspective: from Augustinian biblical topography to a contemporary urban setting – an “update” from a late Classical to a medieval scene, from Hippo to Florence – an “urbanization” of the Augustinian “stages of sin” that gestures towards the streetscape of the Vita nuova.

The publication presents a Russian translation of the surviving part of the «Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans» St. Cyril of Alexandria from the Greek Catenae. In the Preface the initial form of the Commentary is determinated and with the help of additional sources it is concluded that it was an exegetical commentary divided into «tomes». On the basis of the content of the treatise, the question of its dating is solved and it is indicated that the absence something notion of the Nestorian controversy means that it was written before 429, and the features of the triadological terminology allow to date it not earlier than the beginning of writing of the «Dialogues upon the Holy Trinity» (412 or 423). Examines the hermeneutical principles of the Saint and an overview of the content of the Commentary. It is noted that it is devoted almost exclusively to the issues of soteriology.

This book identifies the impasse between classical Protestant and contemporary charismatic and Pentecostal pneumatologies as a fundamental theological problem. Its goal is to contribute a constructive pneumatological proposal for moving beyond this impasse, based on the resources of the theology of Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt (1842-1919). The disagreement is over the question of unmediated experience of the Holy Spirit. Luther's rejection of 'enthusiastic' pneumatologies on the basis of a narrow concept of the mediation of the Word and a pessimistic anthropology became Protestant orthodoxy. In relation to classical Protestantism, the primary theological distinctive of charismatic theology is its strong affirmation of unmediated experience of the Spirit in Christian life and worship. The Pentecostal movement's rapid growth in the past century has brought this difference to the fore. Christoph Blumhardt's theology, which integrates pessimistic anthropology and unmediated experience, is well-suited to exploring the impasse between the two theological traditions.

Gluttony is recognized by most moral and ethical codes, except for the most ardently hedonistic, as a moral failing.  While the term "gluttony" has etymological roots in Latin and Old French, the moral assessment of gluttony, in the Western world, goes as far back as the Ancient Greeks.  Presented here is a brief historical sketch of the concept of gluttony as understood in the Western world.  Changing conceptions of gluttony will be traced from Ancient Greek philosophers through the Judeo-Christian understanding of gluttony as a sin and to the way that gluttony has become intimately connected to moral judgments of fatness.  In addition to this historical sketch, arguments for the abandonment of the traditional language of gluttony are explored.  Made by researchers looking specifically at eating disorders and food addictions, it is claimed that language of gluttony, as historically and traditionally understood, ought to be jettisoned as this language fails to capture the psychological complexity of the compulsion(s) to overconsume.

Narasi kejatuhan manusia ke dalam dosa dalam kitab Kejadian (Kej. 3) melibatkan empat tokoh, yaitu TUHAN Allah, ular, dan manusia (Adam) beserta isterinya (perempuan, Hawa). Umumnya tokoh ular dianggap sebagai pihak yang menginisiasi kejatuhan manusia ke dalam dosa karena memperdaya tokoh perempuan sehingga melanggar perintah TUHAN Allah dan memakan buah dari pohon pengetahuan tentang yang baik dan yang jahat (Kej. 2:16-17). Dalam artikel ini, akan diuraikan secara singkat peran dari masing-masing tokoh dalam narasi kejatuhan untuk meninjau kembali tokoh yang paling bertanggung jawab terhadap dosa pertama manusia.

This article raises the question of how Christian theology might reconcile the orthodox commitment to Christ’s sinless human nature with the more recent understanding of sin and evil as collective systemic forces instead of merely individualistic moral dynamics. Toward this end, three theological currents are navigated: the Reformed tradition’s rendering of Jesus Christ’s impeccability (inability to sin), Eastern Orthodoxy’s theological anthropology (including Christological recapitulation and virtue ethics), and liberation theology’s analysis of the spiritual dimension of social-systemic “Powers.” This eclectic and ecumenical intersection situates an exegesis of two key Gospel accounts—Christ’s visits to the Temple as a boy and as an adult—which track Christ’s personal development into the fullness of his nature as the God-man. This interpretation draws the provisional conclusion that Christ cultivated a new way of being within the Powers, inaugurating the possibility for social forces and institutions to enable human flourishing rather than oppression.

it is a known and well acknowledged fact that Satan is on the constant prowl, seeking whom to destroy and when this is brought into the light of the church which is the gathering of at least one or two believers.........we see it is being seen as something frightful beyond the aproach of the faithful.....but let us look at what the Bible has to tell us...

Sin, and forgiveness of it, is an essential component of the Gospel of Grace. This essay seeks to discern how well the doctrine of sin is being communicated in Aotearoa New Zealand. To this end, the first section offers a brief summary of the doctrine in Scripture and its significance within contemporary theology. The next section listens to responses to the doctrine outside the Church, first those seen generally in the language, legislation and psychology within secular culture, and then more specifically in a recent small study surveying Non-Religious New Zealanders (NRNZs). The final section offers suggestions for improved communication of the doctrine under the headings: Resonance, Rejection, Restatement, and Relationship.

In the collection entitled Deciphering the Worlds of Hebrews
Gabriella Gelardini gathers  fifteen essays written in the last fifteen
years, twelve of which are in English and three in German.
Arranged in three parts (the world of, behind, and in front of
Hebrews’s text), her articles deal with such topics as structure and
intertext, sin and faith, atonement and cult, as well as space and
resistance.
          She reads Hebrews no longer as the enigmatic and homeless
outsider within the New Testament corpus, as the “Melchizedekian
being without genealogy”; rather, she reads Hebrews as one whose
origin has finally been rediscovered, namely in Second Temple
Judaism.

Sartre on Sin: Between Being and Nothingness argues that Jean-Paul Sartre's early, anti-humanist philosophy is indebted to the Christian doctrine of original sin. On the standard reading, Sartre's most fundamental and attractive idea is freedom: he wished to demonstrate the existence of human freedom, and did so by connecting consciousness with nothingness. Focusing on Being and Nothingness, Kate Kirkpatrick demonstrates that Sartre's concept of nothingness (le néant) has a Christian genealogy which has been overlooked in philosophical and theological discussions of his work. Previous scholars have noted the resemblance between Sartre's and Augustine's ontologies: to name but one shared theme, both thinkers describe the human as the being through which nothingness enters the world. However, there has been no previous in-depth examination of this 'resemblance'. Using historical, exegetical, and conceptual methods, Kirkpatrick demonstrates that Sartre's intellectual formation prior to his discovery of phenomenology included theological elements-especially concerning the compatibility of freedom with sin and grace.

After outlining the French Augustinianisms by which Sartre's account of the human as 'between being and nothingness' was informed, Kirkpatrick offers a close reading of Being and Nothingness which shows that the psychological, epistemological, and ethical consequences of Sartre's le néant closely resemble the consequences of its theological predecessor; and that his account of freedom can be read as an anti-theodicy. Sartre on Sin illustrates that Sartre' s insights are valuable resources for contemporary hamartiology.

In this article, I argue that Gary Anderson’s work exploring the different metaphors used for sin in Jewish theology helps to clarify Hans Urs von Balthasar’s soteriology, especially in reference to his controversial teaching on Christ’s descent to hell. I first propose that modern theologies of the cross can be read in terms of the two (identical) goats used in the Levitical Yom Kippur ritual. Anderson has shown that it is the metaphor of “sin as burden” that animated early Jewish atonement theology. The goat for Azazel (commonly called the scapegoat) carries this “burden” into the wilderness, away from God and God’s people. The goat for Azazel's ritual function is therefore essential and different from the function its “twin,” the goat for the Lord, who is offered as a holy sacrifice in the temple. While some modern theologians emphasize the goat that is offered as sacrifice, Balthasar focuses instead on the goat for Azazel. Although Balthasar uses many metaphors for sin, the primary metaphor is the metaphor of “burden.” Anderson’s work helps us to see that Balthasar’s “descent to hell” is an appropriation of and elaboration on Old Testament atonement theology in a Christian context. He understands Christ to be the goat for Azazel who, through his descent, takes on and removes sins to the “wilderness,” as far from God as possible. Understanding that Balthasar is working with and developing biblical themes helps to explain the continuing importance of his insights for Christian theology.

General revelation is used by Paul to show why all people stand under the judgement and anger of God. In this article I plead for an expansion of Neil Ormerod's metaphysical transcendent epistemological frame to include a theological immanent epistemological frame. The rational metaphysical conversion that Ormerod pleads for is shown to be inadequate. To speak meaningfully of the God, a second repentance, which Ormerod develops in his theological hermeneutics, is required, namely a repentance from sin. An epistemology grounded on ontology is hereby replaced by an epistemology grounded on theology, anthropology and hamartiology. Humanity's sinful response to general revelation is understood as her unwillingness to place herself at the mercy of a God who is radically different from this reality. The article calls for agnosticism regarding God and the embracing of despair in the light of the human longing for an alternative reality. The transcendent God, it is argued, can only be reached by first embracing the salvation-historical interpretive framework offered in the canonical tradition. General revelation may still be used as a believing reinterpretation of nature, not only in terms of what creation is, but also in terms of what it should become.

Публикуемая статья посвящена анализу коранических представлений об устроении человека (дескриптивной религиозной антропологии). Кораническая антропология включает в себя прежде всего такие элементы, как «[плотская] душа» (nafs), «сердце» (galb) и «дух» (ruh). Помимо собственно «сердца» (galb), можно говорить о различных его аспектах, именуемых «грудь» (sadr), «предсердие» или «внутреннее сердце» (fu’ad), «сердечная тайна» (sirr) и «сердцевина [сердца]» (lubb). Непосредственный предмет статьи — концепт «грудь» (sadr) в Коране и его развитие в последовательности мотивов, таких как грудь как универсальный концепт (1); соотношение груди (sadr) и сердца (qalb), в т.ч. на примере мотивов «сердце — камень» (2); «то, что в груди» (3); «расширение» и «сокрытие» груди (4); хамартиологического (5) и сотериологического (6) мотивов.

The Qur’anic anthropology exemplified by The Concept of “Breast” (Sadr)

The article analyzes the Qur’anic concepts of the structure of human being (descriptive religious anthropology). Qur’anic anthropology includes primarily elements such as «[carnal] soul» (nafs), «heart» (qalb) and «spirit» (ruh). In addition to the «heart» (qalb), we can talk about its various aspects, called «breast» (sadr), «atrium» or «inner heart» (fu’ad), «secret heart» (sirr) and the «core [of heart]» (libb). The subject of the present article is the concept of «breast» (sadr) in the Qur’an and its development in a sequence of motifs, such as: the breast as a universal concept (1); the correlation between “breast” (sadr) and “heart” (qalb), including, for example, the motif «heart — stone» (2); «that which is in the breast» (3); «expansion» and «concealment of the breast” (4); hamartiological (5) and soteriological (6) motifs.

Keywords: Qur’an, Islam, religious anthropology, islamic anthropology, qur’anic anthropology, hamartiology, soteriology.

The doctrine of the incarnation suggests that Christ is necessarily like us in some respects, and also unlike us in others.  One long-standing debate in modern Christology concerns whether Jesus’ human nature ought to be regarded as “fallen” – as conditioned by the effects of the Fall – despite the fact that he himself remained without sin (Heb. 4:15).  Is fallenness a condition that is necessary in order for Christ to sympathize with human beings, to represent them, and so to reconcile them to God?  Is fallenness logically separable from sinfulness?  Recent literature has suggested an increasing intractability on both sides of this debate.  This essay seeks to bring clarity to the question of the fallenness of Christ’s human nature by identifying areas of common ground between advocates and opponents of this position.  It engages the work of representatives from both sides – Oliver Crisp in opposition and Karl Barth in support – in order to determine the different ways in which they approach the matter of Jesus’ fallenness and impeccability, and to locate points of potential consensus.  Crisp argues that fallenness cannot be detached from sin and guilt – i.e. Augustine’s notion of both original sin and original corruption, in which sin is an inevitability.  Barth, on the other hand, is critical of the Augustinian view and takes as his point of departure Jesus’ unity and sympathy with fallen creatures.  Yet the fallenness of Jesus’ humanity does not mean that sin was a real possibility for him.

In this essay the christological doctrine of anhypostasis – a way of speaking exclusively of human nature apart from its hypostatic union with God the Son – is suggested as the primary way forward.  Advocates of the fallenness position seem to have this qualifier in mind when describing Jesus’ human nature as ‘fallen’: it is true of the assumed nature only when considered in itself, apart from the hypostatic union.  There are logical and historical grounds for opponents to accept fallenness strictly on these terms, as well.  Beyond this, I argue that anhypostatic fallenness should be acceptable to both sides because it is never without a corresponding sanctification of Jesus’ human nature by its encounter with God.  Though Jesus’ humanity was conditioned by the fall, by virtue of the communicatio gratiarum it was not left in a state of peccability.

Much recent Christian theology has sought to reconsider the significance of the body in theological reflection. At the same time, a number of areas of suffering traditionally associated with the experience of sin have come to be reinterpreted, for good reasons, as medical disorders without moral valence. The result is that the doctrine of sin has become increasingly dissociated from the body in contemporary theology. This article addresses this dissociation by exploring the difficulty posed to interpreters by the correlation in Psalms 32 and 38 between unforgiven sin and bodily suffering and dysfunction. After showing that this correlation has been a source of significant difficulties for modern interpreters, the essay concludes by examining the potential of an Augustinian reading of these Psalms in terms of the relationship between mortality and original sin.

{TEXT PROOFS} This article focuses on the question of sin in the context of natural theology‚ in light of the Barth/Brunner debate. A contemporary notion of sin would benefit from Barth’s approach, but without his strict doctrine of sin as
nothingness (‘Nichtiges’). Brunner holds to the Augustinian tradition’s claim that sin is a paradox by distinguishing between the formal and material in the imago dei. On such a basis, we are able to claim that sin is at least wrongdoing,
anthropologically speaking. A natural theology of sin complements the doctrines of creation, election and reconciliation while correlating with findings from the
natural sciences.