I think that makes sense.
Submitted by F.O.D. on September 02 1999 at 16:17:13
In reply to A few answers. . . Submitted by Dirk G on September 02 1999 at 08:07:00
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I see what you mean by the distinction between "original sin" and "original guilt". I think that must be the key concept that I've been missing. Funny how my teachers could have skipped over something like that. Adam's sin seeps into my life, but I'm not guilty of his sin, I'm only guilty when I myself participate in sin. It still sucks, but at least I have only myself to blame ;) As Paul says, "thanks be to God..." You could then even put Adam into an evolutionary context if you had to, saying he is the archetypal man, whose judgement of death describes the death we are bound to when we sin. But then that has a few problems, because it would then suggest that Jesus' conquering of death is likewise merely archetypal, not real. But that's a discussion for another time. You've already wasted enough work-hours, right? ;) After thinking over my body-soul question, it's occuring to me that the situation is not quite so devastating as I first feared. I was probably perceptually trying to bind the two too closely together, making the soul too attached to the material components. Rather the body should be taken "holistically", not a collection of organ, but the ensemble of those organs together. That way it doesn't matter to the soul if one organ gets separated off and forms another complete body somewhere else. That's not the first soul's problem, it rather is attached to it's own whole body (even minus a few cells). This explanation would fit in too with accounts of "out of body experiences". Of course the question stills remains, where do all these souls come from in the first place, but that's another question for another time. Eccl 3:18-21, 12:7. Thanks for the great discussion. I do appreciate it. I like the idea of man finding his reality only through participation in God. By the way, does this all mean Augustine is a lot more of a bastard than Protestant theologians like to admit to? F.O.D. |