Comments on James DeFrancisco’s Essay "Original Sin and Ancestral Sin"

By Razie Mah

James J. DeFrancisco, Ph.D., writes at the request of a colleague. His article is posted online at semantic scholar and academia. The date of publication is not mentioned. My guess is around 2008.
The essay compares Augustine’s Original Sin to the Eastern Church’s, Ancestral Sin. Even though original sin gets top billing, the Eastern Church’s is a comparative winner.
However, the topic is not a contest to see who is best.
There is a real question here, one that speaks to the first singularity, as dramatically portrayed in An Archaeology of the Fall.
All the issues that DeFrancisco raises may be revisited in the light of a scientific proposal, addressing why our current Lebenswelt is not the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.
Yet, in this essay, the debate revolves around the nature of the human person, civilized and fallen. In this, the category-based nested form assists.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Razie Mah
• Release date: Aug 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9781942824893

Razie Mah

See website for bio.

Book preview

Comments on James DeFrancisco’s Essay Original Sin and Ancestral Sin

By Razie Mah

Published for Smashwords.com

2020

Notes on Text

This work comments on an article by James J. DeFrancisco, Ph.D., published online and available at the website, www.academia.edu. No dates are given for the essay. My guess is that the article is written around 2008. The essay discusses human nature and the Biblical Story of the Fall, from the viewpoints of two Christian traditions. The emphasis of the nature of the human is particularly noteworthy. My goal is to comment on this effort using the category-based nested form, the first singularity and other relational models within the tradition of Charles Peirce.

‘Words that belong together’ are denoted by single quotes or italics.

Prerequisites: A Primer on the Category-Based Nested Form, A Primer on Sensible and Social Construction

Recommended: Comments on Original Sin and Original Death: Romans 5:12-19, The First Singularity and Its Fairy Tale Trace, An Archaeology of the Fall

Table of Contents

A Request To Compare Two Doctrines

Actuality Fits Into A Nested Form

Outside the Christian Orbit

The Ancestral Sin Approach

Augustine

Justice and the Law of God

Now, About That Thread

The Roman Catholic View

Aquinas’s Strange Potential

The Final Third

Why An Archaeology of the Fall

A Request To Compare Two Doctrines

0001 James J. DeFrancisco, Ph.D. receives a request.

Please, compare the doctrines of original sin and ancestral sin.

One belongs to the Western Church. The other lives in the Eastern Church.

With hesitation, DeFrancisco proceeds.

0002 Surely, the topic is relevant, since it connects with Holy Scripture and has become disconnected from... well... other aspects of reality.

For example, the Catholic Church recently officially reconsiders the realness of limbo, the near-celestial realm where the souls of unfortunate fetuses and infants go. Limbo is a logical extension of the concept of original sin. If the logical extension goes, then what about the foundational concept?

0003 Original sin starts with Augustine of Hippo (350-430 AD), flourishes in the Western tradition for fourteen centuries and is now being openly questioned and rejected by science-influenced believers.

In contrast, ancestral sin is formulated in the first two centuries after Christ and is currently held by Eastern Orthodox traditions. Ancestral sin does not seem to run against the scientific grain as much as original sin. Yet, the challenge of the evolutionary sciences, as they apply to the human lineage, cannot be ignored. If Adam is not the first anatomically modern human, then who is he?

0004 How do these two doctrines relate to one another? Does one layer over another? Are they separate paths? Is one a springboard for the other? Is one a flop, while the other still stands?

These questions float in the background.

They are not the focus on this essay.

0005 Right at the start, DeFrancisco considers some similarities.

First, these two doctrines yield an understanding of the state of sinfulness and its relation to holiness. They help us to understand ourselves.

Second, they both connect to Adam. Adam is one terminus. We are the other. How do we get from one to the other?

Augustine says that we directly inherit original sin, because concupiscence (literally translating as being with Cupid) is entangled with procreation. Guilt