Sie sind auf Seite 1von 31

Introduction

2. Definition
3. History (origin, development, how they spread,life of jesus)
4. Founder
5. Scriptures
6. Beliefs and symbols
7. Ethnical teaching
8. Festivals and Holy Places
9. Questions
10. Conclusion
11. References
4,5,8
Christianity at a glance

Christianity is the most popular religion in the world with over 2 billion adherents. 42
million Britons see themselves as nominally Christian, and there are 6 million who
are actively practising.
Christians believe that Jesus was the Messiah promised in theOld Testament.
Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Christians believe that God sent his Son to earth to save humanity from the
consequences of its sins.
One of the most important concepts in Christianity is that of Jesus giving his life on
the Cross (the Crucifixion) and rising from the dead on the third day (the
Resurrection).
Christians believe that there is only one God, but that there are three elements
to this one God:
God the Father
God the Son
The Holy Spirit
Christians worship in churches.
Their spiritual leaders are called priests or ministers.
The Christian holy book is the Bible, and consists of the Old and New Testaments.
Christian holy days such as Easter and Christmas are important milestones in
the Western secular calendar

The Assumption of Mary

Assumption of the Virgin by Antoine Sallaert (15851650)
Roman Catholics believe the doctrine of the Assumption, which teaches that at the
end of her life, Mary, the mother of Christ, was taken body and soul (i.e. both
physically and spiritually) into heaven to live with her son (Jesus Christ) for ever.
Human beings have to wait until the end of time for their bodily resurrection, but
Mary's body was able to go straight to heaven because her soul hadn't been tainted
byoriginal sin.
Catholics celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary on August
15th each year. Eastern Orthodox Christians, following the Julian calendar, mark the
event as the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, or the Dormition of the the
Most Holy Mother of God on 28th August.
Top
Catholic and Protestant views
Divergent approaches
This is an ancient teaching, first found in the 5th century, but it remains
controversial to Protestants because it is not explicitly referred to in the Bible.
The Roman Catholic Church bases the doctrine on other valid authority.
A report in 2005 by Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians found common ground
(but not common authority) for belief in the Assumption:
...we can affirm together the teaching that God has taken the Blessed Virgin Mary in
the fullness of her person into his glory as consonant with Scripture and that it can,
indeed, only be understood in the light of Scripture. Roman Catholics can recognize
that this teaching about Mary is contained in the dogma.
2005 report by Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians
Top
Catholic doctrine
Doctrine first proclaimed
The doctrine of the Assumption was proclaimed as infallible byPope Pius XII on All
Saints Day 1950 in the bull (formal proclamation) Munificentissimus Deus.
We pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the
Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her
earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.
Pope Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus, 1950
This made it an important article of faith for Roman Catholics.
This was only the second time that a Pope had proclaimed a doctrine to be infallible.
The first was the Immaculate Conception, another doctrine that concerns Mary.
The Pope justified the Assumption not on Biblical authority but largely on:
the "universal consensus of the Church"
the theological "suitability" of the doctrine
Universal consensus of the Church
The "universal consensus of the Church" means that what the Church as a whole
teaches and believes must be treated as a revealed and thus indisputable truth.
The Church can only reach such a consensus through the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
and the guidance of the Holy Spirit cannot be wrong.
This doesn't mean that Church doctrine cannot change - theologians use the idea
of dogmatic progression, by which human ideas, under the influence of the Holy
Spirit, slowly develop towards the real truth.
Once the real truth is established, the "universal consensus" of the Church then
confirms it as an eternal truth.
Before proclaiming the doctrine Pope Pius XII made sure that there was really was a
consensus in the Church. In 1946 he wrote to all the Roman Catholic bishops to ask
them a) whether they thought the Assumption should become Catholic dogma, and b)
whether the priests and the laity agreed with them. 99% of the bishops said yes.
Theological suitability
The other main argument for the Assumption was that it fitted well with other
Catholic teaching, and would reinforce believers' faith that they too would eventually
go to heaven.
The Assumption was also clearly in harmony with other Catholic ideas about Mary:
Her immaculate conception
Her perpetual virginity
Being the mother of God
Theologians argued that the Mother of God could not be separated from God, and so
must have been taken up to be with him in heaven.
ntroduction
Virtually all religions include an explanation for life on Earth in their scriptures. In the
UK, and even more so in the USA, the creationism debate largely involves Christians.
In March 2006, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, joined the
evolution versus creationism debate when he said in an interview with the Guardian
newspaper that he did not believe that creationism - the scriptural account of the
origins of the world - should be taught in schools.
I think creationism is, in a sense, a kind of category mistake, as if the Bible were a
theory like other theories. Whatever the biblical account of creation is, it's not a
theory alongside theories. It's not as if the writer of Genesis or whatever sat down
and said well, how am I going to explain all this... 'In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth...'
Rowan Williams in The Guardian, 21 March 2006
So what is creationism all about - what does it mean, and why does it matter so
much to many religious people? And what is intelligent design and how does it differ
from creationism?
Creationism
The main points of creationism are these:
All life was created by the actions of God
Some Creationists say God did this in a single creative event
Some Creationists don't limit creation to one event
All the forms of life existing today were created by the actions of God
The organisms created by God can't produce new forms of organism - only God
can do this
The most common theory follows the accounts in the Biblical Book of Genesis, but
most religions have their own creation story
Modern creationism uses scientific evidence to support scripture
Most scientists say the creationism theory is false and unscientific
Intelligent design (also called neo-Creationism)
The current state of life on Earth has come about through the actions of an
intelligent Designer
This is because
Some living things contain certain types of complexity that are best explained as the
result of an intelligent cause
Some aspects of the universe show positive evidence of having been designed by some
form of intelligence
This designer need not be God but most proponents of intelligent design seem to
have God in mind
This theory has been accused of being creationism in disguise
Although a few scientists have supported intelligent design, the majority of those
working in the field regard the theory as false and unscientific
Creationism in depth
Creationism teaches that:
everything in the universe has God as its ultimate cause
the nature of life on Earth is the direct result of God's creative actions
An alternative way of putting the same idea is:
the universe and everything in it could not have come into being without a
supreme being causing it to happen
Creationism is largely based on religious belief, but gains much support from what its
protagonists see as the failures of other theories to explain the evidence properly.
Different religions and cultures have different creation theories, but this article deals
with the Jewish/Christian version.
The Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception, orSoult, by Bartolom Esteban Murillo (1618-1682)
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception teaches that Mary, the mother of
Christ, was conceived without sin and her conception was thus immaculate.
Mary's sinless conception is the reason whyCatholics refer to Mary as "full of grace".
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is celebrated by Catholics on December
8theach year.
Top
Misconceptions
Mistakes
There are two mistakes that people often make about the Immaculate Conception:
Many people confuse the Immaculate Conception with the "virgin birth"; the belief
that Mary gave birth to Jesus while remaining a virgin. They are not the same
thing.
A less common mistake is to think that the Immaculate Conception means that
Mary was conceived without sexual intercourse. In fact Mary had ordinary human
parents who conceived her in the usual manner.
Top
Catholic doctrine
In detail
Mary received God's grace from the first moment of her existence, and was totally
and completely redeemed by this grace. Because she was redeemed, Mary spent her
whole existence in a perfect relationship with God.
God did this so that Mary would be worthy to be the mother of God.
...to the Christian intelligence the idea is unthinkable that the flesh of Christ, holy,
stainless, innocent, was formed in the womb of Mary of a flesh which had ever, if
only for the briefest moment, contracted any stain.
Pope Pius X, 1904
Mary received this redeeming grace not because of any merits of her own, but
because God freely gave her the gift of his love.
Christians believe that God's redeeming grace is available to all believers: those who
accept the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception regard Mary as the perfect
example of the redeeming action of God's grace, and believe that Mary was only able
to receive this grace because Christ would later redeem all humanity through
his death on the cross.
Chosen in advance to be the Mother of the incarnate Word, Mary is at the same time
the first-fruits of his redeeming action. The grace of Christ the Redeemer acted in
her in anticipation, preserving her from original sin and from any contagion of guilt.
Pope John Paul II, Dec 8 2003
Top
Catholic and Protestant views
Divergent approaches
This is an ancient teaching, but it remains controversial to some Protestants because
it is not explicitly referred to in the Bible.
Early Protestant thinkers were more devoted to Mary than some of their
successors. Martin Luther, for example, was a firm believer in the Immaculate
Conception:
The infusion of Mary's soul was effected without original sin...From the first moment
she began to live she was free from all sin.
Martin Luther, sermon: On the Day of the Conception of the Mother of God
A 2005 report by Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians found common ground for
this belief when it stated that:
In view of her vocation to be the mother of the Holy One (Luke 1:35), we can affirm
together that Christ's redeeming work reached 'back in Mary to the depths of her
being, and to her earliest beginnings. This is not contrary to the teaching of Scripture,
and can only be understood in the light of Scripture. Roman Catholics can recognize
in this what is affirmed by the dogma - namely 'preserved from all stain of original
sin' and 'from the first moment of her conception.'
2005 report by Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians
Top
Doctrine's "infallibility"
The doctrine proclaimed as infallible
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was proclaimed
asinfallible by Pope Pius IX in the bull (formal proclamation)Ineffabilis Deus in
1854, and thus is an important article of faith for Roman Catholics.
We declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which holds that the Blessed
Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace of
the Omnipotent God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind,
was preserved immaculate from all stain of original sin, has been revealed by God,
and therefore should firmly and constantly be believed by all the faithful.
Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus, 1854
Before proclaiming the doctrine the Pope took steps to see whether the Church as a
whole agreed by asking 603 bishops whether he should proclaim the Immaculate
Conception; 546 (90%) said that he should.
Bernadette's vision at Lourdes in 1858, where Mary revealed herself as the
Immaculate Conception, put the stamp of God's approval on the doctrine.
Top
What is original sin?
Original sin is an Augustine Christian doctrine that says that everyone is born sinful.
This means that they are born with a built-in urge to do bad things and to disobey
God. It is an important doctrine within the Roman Catholic Church. The concept of
Original Sin was explained in depth by St Augustine and formalised as part of Roman
Catholic doctrine by the Councils of Trent in the 16th Century.
Original sin is not just this inherited spiritual disease or defect in human nature; it's
also the 'condemnation' that goes with that fault.
An explanation for the evils of the world
Some Christians believe that original sin explains why there is so much wrong in a
world created by a perfect God, and why people need to have their souls 'saved' by
God.
A condition you're in, not something you do
Original sin is a condition, not something that people do: It's the normal spiritual and
psychological condition of human beings, not their bad thoughts and actions. Even a
newborn baby who hasn't done anything at all is damaged by original sin.
The sin of Adam
In traditional Christian teaching, original sin is the result of Adam and Eve's
disobedience to God when they ate a forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.
Effects of original sin
Original sin affects individuals by separating them from God, and bringing
dissatisfaction and guilt into their lives.
On a world scale, original sin explains such things as genocide,war, cruelty,
exploitation and abuse, and the "presence and universality of sin in human history".
How to cure original sin
Some Christians believe that human beings can't cure themselves of original sin. The
only way they can be saved from its consequences is by the grace of God.
The only way people can receive God's grace is by accepting his love and forgiveness,
believing that Jesus Christ died on the cross to redeem their sins, and getting
baptised.
Secular ideas of original sin
Modern thinkers don't think the doctrine of original sin is literally true, but they do
think it contains real truths about the human condition:
The world is not as good as we want it to be
We are not as good as we want to be
Individual behaviour is greatly influenced by things outside the individual's control
Many of these are historical things:
events in the individual's past
events in the past of the individual's family
customs that their culture has built up through history
These things affect humanity as a group as well as individuals
Top
Christianity and the fall
Original sin is part of the Doctrine of the Fall, which is the belief that when Adam and
Eve disobeyed God, they 'fell' from perfection and brought evil into a perfect world.
Fall goes with redemption
For Christians, the fall is inseparable from redemption - the act by which human
souls are washed clean of the stain of original sin.
A tale of two Adams
Christians believe that the story of the fall and redemption is a story of two Adams,
and sometimes refer to Christ as the "Second Adam".
The first Adam sins and causes humanity to fall; the second Adam atones for that sin
with his death and redeems humanity.
The traditional story of original sin
The story behind original sin is told in the Old Testament book of Genesis:
God originally made a perfect world. He created Adam and put him to live in the
Garden of Eden - a blissful place where he had nothing to do but take care of the
garden.
Serpent
God told Adam that he could do anything he wanted, except eat the fruit of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil.
Later, God created Eve to be Adam's wife. Eve was tricked by the serpent into eating
the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of life and death. She gave some of the fruit to
Adam and he ate it too.
Adam and Eve realised that they were naked and hid in shame. When God next
visited the Garden he realised that they had disobeyed him.
God banished them from the Garden of Eden into the harsh world outside.
God also banned them from eating the fruit of the tree of life, and so death entered
the world.
The Fall and the origin of evil
Christians believe that when Adam and Eve sinned in Eden and turned away from
God they brought sin into the world and turned the whole human race away from
God.
The doctrine absolves God of responsibility for the evils that make our world
imperfect by teaching that Adam and Eve introduced evil to a perfect world when
they disobeyed him.
An alternative understanding of the story of the fall emphasises that Adam and Eve
did wrong because they 'gave in' to the temptation of the serpent in the Garden of
Eden.
These two versions offer radically different ideas about the origin of evil:
in the first version Adam and Eve bring evil into the world by disobeying God
in the second version evil already exists, and Adam and Eve bring sin to humanity
by giving in to it
This second understanding fits well with human psychology. Looking at it this way,
original sin becomes the tendency for human beings to 'give in' when tempted by the
prevailing evils of the society around them, rather than standing up for good, and it
helps explain why each individual finds temptation so hard to resist. As the Bible
puts it:
... I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate...
Romans 7:14-15
A third understanding teaches not so much that Adam's sin brought sin into the
world, but that it removed from humanity the gift that enabled people to be perfectly
obedient to God.
A modern interpretation
A modern interpretation of the fall might go like this:
Adam was created in the image of God with the potential to be perfectly fulfilled
through his existence and his relationship with God.
But Man failed to fulfil his potential and opted to go it alone and estrange himself
from God.
Jesus as the "Second Adam" re-established the relationship with God and showed
how man can become perfectly human - which puts him in right relationship with
both the creator and his creation.
Usefulness of the doctrine
Original sin is a difficult doctrine, and a rather gloomy one, but it had some key
theological benefits that have kept it as a mainstream Christian teaching:
Universality: Original sin teaches that all human beings are flawed and sinful - no-
one is better than anyone else
Non-dualist: Original sin explains evil without having to portray God as having a
bad side, or an evil partner, responsible for the badness in the world; evil comes
from human rebelliousness
Non-designed: Original sin explains how a world that God designed to be perfect is
actually full of evil
Not inevitable: Original sin teaches that the world could have remained perfect - it
was not inevitable that Adam and Eve would disobey God
Mechanism: Original sin demonstrates a mechanism that enabled the original
disobedience to damage everyone
The Fall and Christian Europe
What effect has the concept of original sin had on Western culture, and how did it
influence gender and morality in Christian Europe?
Discussing the question are Martin Palmer, theologian and Director of the
International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture; Griselda Pollock,
Professor of Art History at the University of Leeds; and John Carey, Emeritus
Professor of English Literature at Oxford University.
Top
Transmission of original sin
How does original sin get from Adam to 21st century human beings?
One rather difficult explanation says that the whole human race was somehow
contained in Adam and so when Adam fell, they fell too.
The other explanation, expanded below, is that all human beings are descendants of
Adam and Eve.
Modern Catholic teaching is less clear about the mechanism of transmission and
refers to it as a mystery.
St Augustine's theory
St Augustine, who largely devised the theory of original sin, thought that original sin
was transmitted from generation to generation through sexual intercourse.
Augustine did not say exactly how this happened.
He said that it was transmitted by "concupiscence", when people had sex and
conceived a child.
Concupiscence is a technical theological word that Augustine used to refer to sexual
desire as something bad in the soul that was inseparable from normal human sexual
impulses.
Sexual desire was bad, he taught, because it could totally overwhelm those caught
up in it, depriving them of self-control and rational thought. This disapproving view
of passion was quite common among Christians of Augustine's time.
Augustine thought that concupiscence was present in all sexual intercourse. He
thought that it was just as bad and uncontrolled in a marriage as it was in non-
marital sex, but that an excuse could be made for it within marriage because its
purpose was to produce legitimate children.
This bad element in sex provides the means by which original sin is transmitted from
father to child. It transmits both humanity's guilt for Adam's crime and the sickness
or defect that gives human beings a sinful nature.
...whenever it comes to the actual process of generation, the very embrace which is
lawful and honourable cannot be effected without the ardour of lust....
[This lust] is the daughter of sin, as it were; and whenever it yields assent to the
commission of shameful deeds, it becomes also the mother of many sins.
Now from this concupiscence whatever comes into being by natural birth is bound by
original sin...
Augustine, De bono coniugali
The Council of Trent
The Council or Trent (1545-63), or Trentine councils were a series of Roman Catholic
theological meetings in response to the Reformation.
The Council of Trent gave the official stamp to the idea that original sin was
transferred from generation to generation by propagation - which means during the
sexual act that led to conception. This formalised the notion of Original Sin as part of
Roman Catholic doctrine.
The Council explicitly ruled out the idea that original sin was transferred by
"imitation"; in order to block the idea that human beings just copied the bad
example set by their parents and others.
Imitation and mimesis
These closely related ideas teach that original sin is passed on by copying the sinful
tendencies of other people. The Council of Trent decreed that this idea was false.
Top
Getting rid of original sin
The only way a person can 'cleanse' their soul from sin is to:
accept that Christ's death on the cross atoned for this sin
accept that only God's grace can cure this sin
confess their sins and ask for forgiveness
be baptised
Many churches accept that infants can be cleansed of original sin by being baptised
soon after birth. The other elements required are carried out by adults on the baby's
behalf during the ceremony.
Redemption
In St Paul's letter to the Galatians, he wrote: "Christ has set us free; stand fast
therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery". This conception of
Redemption as freedom from bondage is crucial for Judeo-Christian thought.
Three academics - Richard Harries, Bishop of Oxford; Janet Soskice, Reader in
Modern Theology and Philosophical Theology at Cambridge University; and Stephen
Mulhall, Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at Oxford University - discuss the idea of
transformation from fallenness to salvation.
Top
Problems with original sin
The unanswered question
On the face of it, original sin doesn't answer the question as to how evil got into the
world; instead it leaves other questions to be answered. As one writer puts it:
Why is there original sin? Because Adam sinned? Then why did Adam sin? If it was
because of the serpent, why did the serpent sin? If the serpent is supposed to have
been a fallen angel, why did the angel sin? And so on.
Serpent
And there is a second, but related, question. If evil did not exist before Adam sinned,
how could Adam know that what he was about to do was evil - how was he to know
that it was wrong to disobey God?
It's unfair
For modern people the idea of being punished for a crime committed by someone
else is unethical and unacceptable.
Original sin belongs to each of us because it belongs to all.
It's misogynistic
The doctrine of original sin blames Eve for tempting Adam into sin and has been
responsible for centuries of Christian bias against women.
It's anti-sex
Augustine's theory of original sin was so intrinsically tied up with his disapproval of
human sexual love that for centuries it contaminated all sexual passion with the idea
of sin.
It's too pessimistic
Some Christian thinkers are unhappy with the idea that human beings start out so
bad that they can't become good without God's help.
It's not literally true
Science shows that the Biblical creation story is not literally true, and demonstrates
that Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden are myths and not historical figures.
This destroys the idea of original sin as being caused by the misbehaviour of the first
man and woman, and the idea of inheriting guilt or punishment for that
misbehaviour.
Most modern theologians don't think this a good reason to abandon the doctrine of
the fall. They believe that although the story is not historically true, it does contain
important truths about the state of humanity.
It's contradicted by evolution
The doctrine of original sin is based on the idea that God created a perfect world,
and that humanity damaged it and themselves by disobeying him.
Evolution, on the other hand, suggests that life in the world is steadily changing and
becoming more diverse. Scientists do not tend to think of this as a moral good or evil,
but in a sense evolution sees life on earth as moving closer to 'perfection' - becoming
better adapted to its environment.
The biblical story of the perfect and finished creation from which human beings fell
into sin is pre-Darwinian mythology and post-Darwinian nonsense.
Bishop John Shelby Spong, A Call for a New Reformation, 1998
A more modern idea is to give an ethical spin to the evolutionary idea and suggest
that humanity should not be concerned about a past fall from grace, but concentrate
on becoming more ethical beings and thus bringing about a better world.
What about unbaptised babies?
Bishop Richard Holloway has described the idea that unbaptised babies go to hell as
"one of the most unsympathetic of the Christian doctrines," and not greatly improved
by the teaching that there is a special "limbo" for unbaptised babies on the outskirts
of the inferno.
This is covered later in this article.
Is guilt good?
Original sin has been criticised for inspiring excessive feelings of guilt. The 18th-
century politician and philosopher Edmund Burke once said: "Guilt was never a
rational thing; it distorts all the faculties of the human mind, it perverts them, it
leaves a man no longer in the free use of his reason, it puts him into confusion."
Is the feeling of guilt a vital part of our moral lives or can it do more harm than good?
Discussing the question are Stephen Mulhall, Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at New
College, Oxford; Miranda Fricker, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Birkbeck,
University of London; and Oliver Davies, Professor of Christian Doctrine at King's
College London.
Top
Unbaptised babies
The concept of 'Limbo'
One of the biggest problems the Catholic Church faced over the years was the
problem of children who died before they were baptised.
Before the 13th Century, all unbaptised people, including new born babies who died,
would go to Hell, according to the Catholic Church. This was because original sin had
not been cleansed by baptism. This idea however was criticised by Peter Abelard, a
French scholastic philosophiser, who said that babies who had no personal sin didn't
even deserve punishment.
It was Abelard who introduced the idea of 'Limbo'. The word comes from the Latin
'limbus', meaning the edge. This would be a state of existence where unbaptised
babies, and those unfortunate enough to have been born before Jesus, would not
experience pain but neither would they experience the Beatific Vision of God.
Abelard's idea was accepted in the 13th century by PopeInnocent III, the most
powerful Pope in Roman Catholic history. The idea of Limbo was defined in 1904 by
Pope Pius X in his catechism.
Babies dead without baptism go to Limbo, where they do not enjoy God, but neither
do they suffer, because, having Original Sin alone, they do not deserve Paradise, but
neither do they merit Hell or Purgatory.
Pope Pius X
However, unease remained over reconciling a Loving God with one who sent babies
to Limbo and the church still faced much criticism.
The Church, which has never claimed to definitely know who will go to Heaven apart
from the Saints, or Hell, has said that the issue has long been one of speculation in
the Church. This speculation has led to an oversimplification of the matter, and some
people have regarded it as fact when it was never the case.
Catholics are only sure of the following two pieces of information in this matter:
that God is merciful
that baptism is necessary for salvation
Catholics feel sure that God won't impose punishment on babies who are free from
personal guilt, but they do admit they don't know what their afterlife will hold.
State of Limbo revised
In 1992, Pope John Paul II had Limbo removed from the catechism and both Pope
John Paul and Pope Benedict XVIurged further study on the concept. In April 2007
Pope Benedict XVI approved the findings of a report by the International Theological
Commission, a Vatican advisory body, which found grounds that the souls of
unbaptised children would go to heaven, thus revising traditional teaching on Limbo.
The report said there were "reasons to hope that infants who die without baptism
may be saved and brought into eternal happiness".
Parents were urged to continue to baptise their children, as the Vatican stressed that
baptism is still considered necessary to achieve salvation; the report emphasised
that "there are reasons to hope that God will save these infants precisely because it
was not possible" to baptise them.
Top
St Augustine and original sin
St Augustine was Bishop of Hippo, in what is now Algeria, from 396 to 430. He was
one of the greatest theologians in history and his ideas still influence Christian
thought today.
Although he didn't invent the doctrine of original sin, his ideas about it dominated
Western Church teaching.
Augustine's theory shows great understanding of human psychology. It provides an
explanation for human suffering and guilt by teaching that those human beings
somehow deserved these things.
Human beings deserve to suffer because the first parents sinned. And since
humanity deserves the bad things it gets, humanity can comfort itself with the idea
that it has a just rather than an unjust God.
This made the presence of evil in the world easier to understand, and answered the
question of why a benevolent God would allow such a state of affairs to exist.
Purpose of the theory
Augustine developed his idea of original sin for several reasons:
to explain the almost irresistible pressure to behave badly that troubles even the
most saintly people
to justify the need to baptise babies as soon as possible after birth
to demonstrate that human beings are totally reliant on God's grace and all-
powerful goodness
to defeat the ideas of Pelagius, an English theologian
Augustine's theory
Augustine saw original sin as working in two ways:
inherited guilt for a crime
spiritual sickness or weakness
Augustine thought that humanity was originally perfect ("man's nature was created
at first faultless and without any sin"), immortal and blessed with many talents, but
that Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and introduced sin and death to the world.
Augustine didn't see any need to provide a good reason why Adam, who had
originally been created perfect, chose to sin, or why God hadn't created a perfect
being that was incapable of sin.
As far as Augustine was concerned the point was that Adam had sinned and
humanity had to deal with the consequences.
Modern people would think it unjust that human beings should suffer for something
that happened long before they existed, but to people in Augustine's time the idea of
punishing later generations for their parents' crimes was familiar.
Why Adam's sin affects everyone
Augustine developed the following argument:
the whole essence of human nature was contained in Adam, the first man
when Adam disobeyed God, the whole of human nature disobeyed God
thus the whole of human nature became sinful
thus the whole human race was damaged for all time.
Nothing remains but to conclude that in the first man all are understood to have
sinned, because all were in him when he sinned; whereby sin is brought in with birth
and not removed save by the new birth... it is manifest that in Adam all sinned, so to
speak, en masse. By that sin we became a corrupt mass.
Augustine
Bible scholars think that this element of Augustine's theory was partly based on a
mistranslation in the Latin version of the Bible. However, Augustine does not base
his entire argument only on that particular text, and his theory is not wrecked by this
error.
Having established that every human being had inherited guilt from Adam, Augustine
taught that this was why that all human beings were damned, even if they didn't
commit any extra sins of their own.
Consequence of original sin
Augustine was certain that the consequence of original sin was damnation. This even
applied to people who hadn't committed any sins, like newborn babies, if they died
before their souls were cleaned by baptism.
People could only escape damnation through God's grace, and the sacrifice
of Jesus on the Cross for their sins. God's grace was passed on through baptism (or
martyrdom - but this was a route that few would choose).
Unfortunately there was no guarantee that everyone who was baptised would be
saved from damnation, merely the certainty that those who weren't baptised would
go to hell.
Top
Churches' teachings about original sin
Protestant teaching - Calvin
The Protestant theologian John Calvin (1509-1564) believed that humanity's unbelief
and disobedience had so fundamentally changed the human race that little, if
anything, of God was left in it.
We are lost, there is no means of help; and whether we are great or small, fathers or
children, we are all without exception in a state of damnation if God does not remove
from us the curse which weighs upon us, and that by His generosity and grace,
without His being obliged to do so.
John Calvin
Protestant - modern
Many modern Protestants would not take quite such a gloomy view of humanity as
Calvin, and would not regard humankind as evil in essence, without any trace of the
divine image.
They would still teach that human beings are 'fallen' and need to 'get right with God',
by believing that Christ's death 'atoned' for their sin, accepting that they can only be
'saved' by God's freely given 'grace', and being baptised.
Orthodox teaching
The Christian Orthodox churches don't interpret original sin in the way that
Augustine did. They don't accept that people can be guilty of a sin they did not
commit, and so reject the idea of inherited guilt passed down the generations.
The Orthodox interpretation of original sin is that the way in which human beings
inherit sinfulness is that human history, culture and society have created a moral
climate which disposes human beings to behave sinfully; as a result, all people need
God's help to avoid sin.
Roman Catholic teaching
The teaching of the Roman Catholic Church was summarised by Pope Paul VI:
We believe that in Adam all have sinned, which means that the original offence
committed by him caused human nature, common to all men, to fall to a state in
which it bears the consequences of that offence, and which is not the state in which
it was at first in our first parents, established as they were in holiness and justice,
and in which man knew neither evil nor death.
It is human nature so fallen, stripped of the grace that clothed it, injured in its own
natural powers and subjected to the dominion of death, that is transmitted to all men,
and it is in this sense that every man is born in sin.
We therefore hold, with the Council of Trent, that original sin is transmitted with
human nature 'not by imitation, but by propagation' and that it is thus 'proper to
everyone.'
We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ, by the sacrifice of the cross, redeemed us
from original sin and all the personal sins committed by each one of us, so that, in
accordance with the word of the Apostle, 'where sin abounded, grace did more
abound.'
Paul VI 1968
Top
Atonement and reconciliation
Actors enact the Crucifixion
The events leading up to the arrest andcrucifixion of Jesus are well-told by the
Gospel writers, as are stories of the Resurrection. But why did Jesus die?
In the end the Roman authorities and the Jewish council wanted Jesus dead. He
was a political and social trouble-maker. But what made the death of Jesus more
significant than the countless other crucifixions carried out by the Romans and
witnessed outside the city walls by the people of Jerusalem?
Christians believe that Jesus was far more than a political radical. For them the
death of Jesus was part of a divine plan to save humanity.
The death and resurrection of this one man is at the very heart of the Christian faith.
For Christians it is through Jesus's death that people's broken relationship with God
is restored. This is known as the Atonement.
What is the atonement?
The word atonement is used in Christian theology to describe what is achieved by
the death of Jesus. William Tyndale introduced the word in 1526, when he was
working on his popular translation of the Bible, to translate the Latin
wordreconciliatio.
In the Revised Standard Version the word reconciliation replaces the word atonement.
Atonement (at-one-ment) is the reconciliation of men and women to God through
the death of Jesus.
But why was reconciliation needed? Christian theology suggests that although God's
creation was perfect, the Devil tempted the first man Adam and sin was brought into
the world. Everybody carries this original sin with them which separates them from
God, just as Adam and Eve were separated from God when they were cast out of the
Garden of Eden.
So it is a basic idea in Christian theology that God and mankind need to be
reconciled. However, what is more hotly debated is how the death of Jesus achieved
this reconciliation.
There is no single doctrine of the atonement in the New Testament. In fact, perhaps
more surprisingly, there is no official Church definition either. But first, what does
the New Testament have to say?
New Testament images
The New Testament uses a range of images to describe how God achieved
reconciliation to the world through the death of Jesus. The most common is the
image of sacrifice.
For example, John the Baptist describes Jesus as "the lamb of God that takes away
the sins of the world". (John 1:29)
Here are some other images used to describe the atonement:
a judge and prisoner in a law court
a payment of ransom for a slave's freedom
a king establishing his power
a military victory
And here are some examples of how the New Testament explains the death of Jesus:
'For the Son of Man himself did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his
life as a ransom for many'.
Words attributed to Jesus in Mark 10:45
'Drink all of you from this', he said. 'For this is my blood, the blood of the covenant,
which is to be poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.'
Words attributed to Jesus in Matthew 26:28
Well then, in the first place, I taught you what I had been taught myself, namely that
Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures...
Written by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:3
How have later writers and theologians interpreted the Biblical accounts and
theologies? In varied, and sometimes conflicting, ways.
Top
Theories of the Atonement
Theories of the Atonement
Theologians have grouped together theories of the atonement into different types.
For example, in Christus Victor (1931) Gustaf Auln suggested three types: classical,
Latin and subjective.
More recently in his book Christian Theology: An IntroductionAlister E. McGrath
groups his discussion into four central themes but stresses that these themes are not
mutually exclusive. His four themes are:
The cross as sacrifice
The cross as a victory
The cross and forgiveness
The cross as a moral example
The cross as sacrifice

The image of Jesus' death as a sacrifice is the most popular in the New Testament.
The New Testament uses the Old Testament image of the Suffering Servant (Isaiah
53:5) and applies it to Christ.
The theme of Jesus's death as a sacrifice is most drawn out in the Letter to the
Hebrews. The sacrifice of Christ is seen as the perfect sacrifice.
In the biblical tradition sacrifice was a common practice or ritual. In making an
offering to God or a spirit, the person making the sacrifice hopes to make or mend a
relationship with God.
St Augustine too wrote on the theme of sacrifice:
By his death, which is indeed the one and most true sacrifice offered for us, he
purged, abolished and extinguished whatever guilt there was by which the
principalities and powers lawfully detained us to pay the penalty.
Augustine - The City of God
He offered sacrifice for our sins. And where did he find that offering, the pure victim
that he would offer? He offered himself, in that he could find no other.
Augustine - The City of God
The cross as a victory

The New Testament frequently describes Jesus's death and resurrection as a victory
over evil and sin as reprsented by the Devil. How was the victory achieved?
For many writers the victory was achieved because Jesus was used as a ransom or a
"bait". In Mark 10:45 Jesus describes himself as "a ransom for many". This word
"ransom" was debated by later writers. The Greek writer Origen suggested Jesus's
death was a ransom paid to the Devil.
Gregory the Great used the idea of a baited hook to explain how the Devil was
tricked into giving up his hold over sinful humanity:
The bait tempts in order that the hook may wound. Our Lord therefore, when coming
for the redemption of humanity, made a kind of hook of himself for the death of the
devil.
Gregory the Great
Although the victory approach became less popular in the eighteenth century
amongst Enlightenment thinkers - when the idea of a personal Devil and forces of
evil was thrown into question - the idea was popularised again by Gustaf Auln with
the publication in 1931 of Christus Victor.
Auln wrote of the idea Christus Victor:
Its central theme is the idea of the Atonement as a Divine conflict and victory; Christ
- Christus Victor - fights against and triumphs over the evil powers of the world, the
'tyrants' under which mankind is in bondage and suffering, and in Him God reconciles
the world to Himself.
Gustaf Auln
The cross and forgiveness
Anselm of Canterbury writing in the eleventh century rejected the idea that God
deceived the Devil through the cross of Christ. Instead he presented an alternative
view which is often called the satisfaction theory of the atonement.
In this theory Jesus pays the penalty for each individual's sin in order to right the
relationship between God and humanity, a relationship damaged by sin.
Jesus's death is the penalty or "satisfaction" for sin.
Satisfaction was an idea used in the early church to describe the public actions -
pilgrimage, charity - that a christian would undertake to show that he was grateful
for forgiveness.
Only Jesus can make satisfaction because he is without sin. He is sinless because in
the Incarnation God became man. The theory is thought out by Anselm in his
work Cur Deus Homo orWhy God became Man.
The cross as a moral example

Moral influence theories or exemplary theories comprise a fourth category used to
explain the atonement. They emphasise God's love expressed through the life and
death of Jesus.
Christ accepted a difficult and undeserved death. This demonstration of love in turn
moves us to repent and re-unites us with God. Peter Abelard (1079-1142) is
associated with this theory. He wrote:
The Son of God took our nature, and in it took upon himself to teach us by both word
and example even to the point of death, thus binding us to himself through love.
Peter Abelard
Abelard's theory and the call to the individual to respond to Christ's death with love
continues to have popular appeal today.
...Our redemption through the suffering of Christ is that deeper love within us which
not only frees us from slavery to sin, but also secures for us the true liberty of the
children of God, in order that we might do all things out of love rather than out of
fear - love for him that has shown us such grace that no greater can be found.
Peter Abelard
Top
Penal substitution
Penal substitution
Three crosses
Did Jesus take the punishment for humanity's sins when he died on the cross? That
idea is called penal substitution and is summed up by Reverend Rod Thomas, from
the evangelical group Reform, as "When God punished he showed his justice by
punishing sin but he showed his love by taking that punishment himself".
The debate
Jeffrey John, Dean of St Albans, disagrees with the theory of penal substitution and
said so in a radio talk given over Lent 2007.
The Reverend Rod Thomas of Reform and Jonathan Bartley, director of Christian
think tank Ekklesia and editor of the bookConsuming Passion - why the killing of
Jesus really matters, discussed Jeffrey John's words on the Today programme.
Top
God, Jesus and the saints
God

Christians believe that there is only one God, whom they call Father as Jesus Christ
taught them.
Jesus
Christians recognise Jesus as the Son of God who was sent to save mankind from
death and sin.
Jesus Christ taught that he was Son of God. His teachings can be summarised,
briefly as the love of God and love of one's neighbour.
Jesus said that he had come to fulfil God's law rather than teach it.
Justification by faith
Christians believe in justification by faith - that through their belief in Jesus as the
Son of God, and in his death and resurrection, they can have a right relationship with
God whose forgiveness was made once and for all through the death of Jesus Christ.
The Trinity
Christians believe in the Trinity - that is, in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Some confuse this and think that Christians believe in three separate gods, which
they don't.
Christians believe that God took human form as Jesus Christ and that God is present
today through the work of the Holy Spirit and evident in the actions of believers.
Life after death
Christians believe that there is a life after earthly death.
While the actual nature of this life is not known, Christians believe that many
spiritual experiences in this life help to give them some idea of what eternal life will
be like.
The Saints
These days, the word saint is most commonly used to refer to a Christian who has
lived a particularly good and holy life on earth, and with whom miracles are claimed
to have been associated after their death.
The formal title of Saint is conferred by the Roman
Catholicand Orthodox Churches through a process called canonisation.
Members of these Churches also believe that Saints created in this way can intercede
with God on behalf of people who are alive today. This is not accepted by most
Protestants.
In the Bible, however, the word saint is used as a description of anyone who is a
committed believer, particularly by St. Paul in the New Testament (e.g. Ephesians
1.1. and 1.15).
Top
Prayer and ritual
Prayer
Candles
Prayer is the means by which Christians communicate with their God.
The New Testament records that Jesus taught his disciples how to pray and that
he encouraged them to address God as Father. Christians believe that they continue
this tradition.
Sometimes the prayers are formal and part of a ritual laid down for hundreds of
years.
Others are personal and spontaneous, and come from personal or group need.
Whilst prayer is often directed to God as Father, as taught by Jesus, some traditions
encourage prayer to God through intermediaries such as saints and martyrs.
Prayers through Mary, as the mother of God, are central to some churches and form
a traditional part of their worship.
The Church
The Christian church is fundamental to believers. Although it has many faults it is
recognised as God's body on earth.
The church is the place where the Christian faith is nurtured and where the Holy
Spirit is manifest on earth.
It is where Christians are received into the faith and where they are brought together
into one body through the Eucharist.
Baptism
The Christian church believes in one baptism into the Christian church, whether this
be as an infant or as an adult, as an outward sign of an inward commitment to the
teachings of Jesus.
Eucharist
Eucharist is a Greek word for thanksgiving. Its celebration is to commemorate the
final meal that Jesus took with his disciples before his death (the Last Supper).
This rite comes from the actions of Jesus who, at that meal, took bread and wine and
asked his disciples to consume them and continue to do so in memory of him.

At the meal, the wine represented his blood and the bread his body.
The Eucharist (also known as a Communion meal in some churches) is central to the
Church and is recognised as a sign of unity amongst Christians.
Different Churches understand and practice the Eucharist in different ways. As a
result, the central ideas of the Eucharist can cause disharmony rather than unity.
For example, the idea that Christ is present in the bread and wine is interpreted
literally by some churches and metaphorically by others. This has given rise to
substantial and often irreconcilable disagreement.
Top
The Trinity
Christian beliefs concerning God
There is only one God
God is a Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit
God is perfect
God is omnipotent
God is everywhere
God knows everything
God created the universe
God keeps the universe going
God intervenes in the universe
God loves everyone unconditionally (though people have to comply with various
conditions in order to achieve salvation)
Human beings can get to know God through prayer, worship, love, and mystical
experiences
Human beings can get to know God through God's grace - that is through his love
and his power
God the Son
God lived on earth as Jesus
Jesus was both wholly God and wholly human
Jesus was born to a human woman, Mary, but conceived of the Holy Spirit
Because Jesus was wholly human he was subject to pain, suffering, and sorrow like
other human beings
Jesus was executed by crucifixion but rose from the dead at the Resurrection
Jesus's life provides a perfect example of how God wants people to live
Jesus died on the Cross so that those who believe in him will be forgiven all
their sins
God the Holy Spirit
After the Resurrection, Jesus remained on earth for only a few days before going
up into Heaven
Jesus promised that he would stay with his followers, so after he went to Heaven
he sent his Spirit to guide them
The Holy Spirit continues to guide, comfort, and encourage Christians
Top

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen