Why I Think Adam was a Real Person in History

[gbrooks9 (George Brooks)]

@Jon_Garvey

The fact remains that the Orthodox church historically accepted Augustine as an authority, though their spin on ancestral sin was more orientated towards the inheritance of mortality than guilt.

Quite right, @Jon_Garvey! They believed the inheritance from Adam was “the disease of death”… not “Adam’s sin and its repercussions of evil”. Each person was inevitably to sin in his own way, paying the wage of his own destruction, without any recourse to Adam’s specific sin required.

Here’s my latest research on the matter:

'Once more into the breach' - - the Greek Fathers on Original Sin?

In honor of @Jon_Garvey, I thought I would see how close I can come to drawing out the differences between Augustine and Irenaeus regarding the doctrine of Original Sin. In a recent posting, Jon asserts that Irenaeus, who preceded Augustine, was the first to elaborate the doctrine of Original Sin. And yet, in my readings, I learned that the term Original Sin never appears in Irenaeus’ writings - - but first appeared in Augustine. Nevertheless, one supposes that Irenaeus may well have articula…