Today we are beginning a new series on original sin based on Kegan Chandler’s presentation from last year, entitled, “Origins of Sin: The New Heretics and the Metaphysics of Disobedience.” I’m excited about this four part series for a couple of reasons. First off, I’m glad to host a place where we can discuss genuine theological differences in a respectful and constructive way. So often in Christianity today, there’s just not an opportunity for peer review. Well, here on Restitutio, we are going to do just that. Secondly, I’m excited because this is an important topic that many of us have not through. Oftentimes until someone challenges our beliefs, we just go with the flow. However, whether we realize it or not, that flow was determined long ago by Christians whose reasoning may or may not stand up to scrutiny today.
In what follows Chandler is going to present his case that the idea of original sin goes back to Augustine who combined bits and pieces from earlier Christians like Cyprian and the Manicheans. Now, this is a strong position Chandler takes. Essentially, he argues that the doctrine of original sin is not native to scripture, an innovation of the fifth century. If Chandler is right then all of us are born neutral without the stain of Adam’s sin upon us. Furthermore, Christians need to stop making excuses for sinning and realize that we can live without sin.
Next week, I’ll air part two, which will be Jerry Wierwille’s critique of this presentation. Then I have two more interviews where Chandler and Wierwille discuss this topic at length.
Also, I took notes on Chandler’s presentation which may help you navigate your way through this talk as well as show you the spelling for these ancient Christians in case you want to research any of them further. (See below.)
—— Links ——
- You can watch the raw video of this talk on YouTube (including the Q&A, starting at 1:18:00)
- Other Restitutio podcasts with Kegan Chandler
- Check out his books The God of Jesus in Light of Christian Dogma and Constantine and the Divine Mind
- Follow Chandler on his Buried Deep blog and his God of Jesus website.
- Read his scholarly papers on Academia.edu
- If you’d like to support Restitutio financially, you can donate here.
- Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library
—— Notes ——
Augustine’s Doctrine Defined
- A) Adam’s disobedience caused transgressions to enter the world of humanity
- B) Adam’s disobedience caused all of his progeny to physically die
- C) Adam’s disobedience fundamentally changed human nature.
- D) Adam originally had free will, but it became corrupt as a consequence of his disobedience.
- E) Adam’s disobedience caused all of his progeny to be born without free will (a ‘non-free’ free will).
- F) Adam’s disobedience transmitted sin-guilt to all his progeny.
- G) Adam’s disobedience transmitted a sinning-nature