(Note: the blue horizontal menu bar directly above lists the subsections of "Original Sin in the Bible as Read Today." Beginning with "Acceptance of Evolution by Pope John Paul II," be sure to read each of these subsections before moving on to the next primary section, "New Interpretation of Original Sin.")

The Council of Trent

In 1546 the Council of Trent, set up by the Catholic Church in response to the Reformers, published five "canons" pertaining to original sin (see Connor 1968; also Clarkson et al. 1955, 159). Of special importance is the third canon:

If anyone says that this sin of Adam, which is one by origin and is communicated to all by propagation and not by imitation (propagatione, non imitatione), and is in all and proper to each, (if anyone says) that it can be taken away through the powers of human nature or by some other remedy than through the merit of the one mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ, … or denies that this merit of Jesus Christ is applied through the sacrament of baptism both to adults as well as to infants … let him be anathema.

Critique of the canons. A hermeneutical approach will help to determine what, within the cultural context of its authors, the Council of Trent meant and did not mean to say (Connor 1968, 222-225). It included much material from the Council of Orange in 529 AD. The primary intent of the Council of Orange had been to insist on the necessity of the grace of Christ for salvation. It introduced original sin to stress this need, but it said little about Adam, and made no special effort to define original sin or discuss how it is transmitted. The Council of Trent, though, did attempt to describe the transmission of "original sin," in its famous third canon, as taking place "by propagation, not by imitation." But this still allows theologians to speculate on the possible significance of that expression, especially in the light of evolution and the awareness that the narrative of Adam and Eve in Genesis is not historical. However one views the transmission of "original sin," one must acknowledge the fundamental assertion of the councils of Orange and Trent: humans cannot achieve their own salvation.

This is indeed the teaching of both Catholics and Reformers, as witnessed, for example, in the 1983 statement on original sin by the members of the Catholic-Lutheran Dialogue on Justification:

… as a consequence of original sin all human beings stand in need of justification even before they commit personal sins. Sinners can do nothing to merit justification, which is the free gift of God's grace. Even the beginnings of justification … repentance, prayer for grace and desire for forgiveness, must be God's work in us.

Words highlighted in green appear in the Glossary.