Original Sin

A Lutheran friend of mine recently asked me what I think of the doctrine of original sin. This is what I emailed her:

OK, here’s my shot at it. I think that the doctrine of OS is more than just a way of talking about humanity’s need for JX. I think it was a way to protect a Platonic/Aristotelian metaphysical view of God. The Early Church, in its attempt to reconcile the divinity and death of Jesus and to gain a hearing in the Hellenistic world had to do something to guard this Greek metaphysic. The doctrine of OS was a handy solution: it could be justified from Genesis, and it kept intact God’s impassibility. The problem of theodicy now lay completely in the tarnished souls of human beings.

Now I grew up as a loyal Calvinist, and I only began to question that when I fell under the sway of a couple Anabaptist professors at Fuller. Then I started to wonder if we don’t need to set up philosophical shemes to protect God’s sovereignty; maybe God shows true sovereignty by deigning to suffer with us. In fact, it seems that the fact of creation itself does away with God’s impassibility; that is, why would a perfect and impassible God create anything to begin with?

Moltmann argues that because God is love, God really had no choice but to create a creation which he could love. Further, because love inevitably involves suffering, God inevitably suffers. If God did not suffer, then God would not be love.

Regarding metanarrative, the question is: Is there a Christian metanarrative, or are there many? Are the anabaptist, lutheran, reformed, catholic, and orthodox conceptions of Christianity reconcilable? Brian McLaren argues that they are in his latest book, A Generous Orthodoxy. I’d like to share his optimism, but I’m a little more skeptical.

Yes, I am convinced that the world needs the story that we’re telling. But that story has changed over time. In other words, all theology is, in some way, contextual theology — doctrines like OS and the Trinity were developed at certain times to deal with certain issues. We need to reappropriate some for our time, and we need to leave others on the rubbish heap of history. That’s how you Lutherans are able to embrace Luther’s theology of the cross but repudiate his anti-Semitism. So if there is a metanarrative, “there is no there there.” It’s always in flux, in negotiation between different theological schools, and, more importantly, between theologians and people who sit in pews every Sunday.