Christians worldwide observe Lent as a season of fasting, prayer, and spiritual return to God. These six weeks create space for self-reflection, good works, and renewed appreciation of God’s grace. Beginning with the ritual of ashes—reminding us that we are dust and to dust we shall return—Lent invites spiritual renewal as we lament our transgressions.
The doctrine of original sin developed during the 3rd century in Irenaeus of Lyons’ struggle against Gnosticism and was significantly shaped by Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD), who first used the phrase “original sin.” Augustine’s influential teaching emphasized that humanity inherited a “stain of sin” from Adam’s disobedience, creating a state of moral corruption requiring Christ’s redemption. While the concept of original sin is not biblical, the inspiration for this idea is found in the Book of Genesis. Adam and Eve’s disobedience (Gen 3:1-24) against God’s command not to eat of the forbidden tree is the foundation for explaining sin and its consequences: suffering and death. In the late fourth century, Augustine characterized sin as a universal condition of inherited guilt, overcome only through God’s grace via baptism. This concept of fallen creation requiring salvation remains fundamental to Catholic doctrine. As Anselm of Canterbury wrote, “If Adam had not sinned, Christ would not have come.” Since all have fallen, all need redemption.
While interpretations have varied over centuries, the Catholic Church maintains that original sin is inherited guilt from a single couple (monogenism): “Original sin… proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam and which, through generation, is passed on to all and is in everyone as his own” (Humani generis, 1950, para. 37). Although the Church has a lukewarm reception to evolution, the Church distinguishes evolution of the body from the soul, which is created immediately by God (Humani generis, para. 36).
The conviction of sin is deeply embedded in Christian theology. This narrative unfolds against the backdrop of salvation history, culminating in Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. As Paul writes, “In Adam all have died; in Christ all are redeemed” (1 Cor 15:22). His Letter to the Romans establishes a parallel between the fallen Adam and Christ, the new person; Paul writes: “Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned… much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many… For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:12, 15, 17). The doctrine of original sin is a cornerstone of Christian faith because it sets up a parallel between Adam and Christ, that is, between, fallen humanity and the need for a Savior. Hence, original sin is intertwined with Christology. While many theologians have recognized the need to modify or eliminate this doctrine, it remains entrenched in Christian doctrine because it is a linchpin to the Christian narrative. Simply put, no Adam, no Christ; if there is no need for Christ, then our faith is in vain.
Teilhard de Chardin considered original sin a static solution to the problem of evil. From a biological evolution perspective, no single moment or origin of sin creates a universal condition. While universal adaptations in life are driven by universal properties of matter (energy, entropy, interaction), evolutionary changes tend to be local rather than universal, primarily because creaturely life is local and shaped by environment and culture. We are not born in sin because of some aboriginal transgression by a primitive Adam, Teilhard argued. We are born into a world that is becoming; hence, “original sin” is the universe’s law, the cosmic condition of an evolving world. In a universe this vast, dead ends and wrong turns inevitably occur. No creative process exists without loss, suffering, death, and destruction. The immense suffering and death in biological life has made human emergence possible. After 13.8 billion years of cosmic life and 4.2 billion years of terrestrial life—with significant climate changes and cataclysmic extinctions—our very existence and capacity for reflection must be attributed to something more profound and resilient than original sin.
We have a need to explain evil in a “broken” world. The Fall narrative suggests we once existed in loving unity before turning from good by disobeying God’s command. Yet, this myth lacks credibility against our modern scientific understanding. Biological life is much more dynamic, relational, and resilient. To hold on to an outdated concept that defies modern biology distorts the meaning of the cosmic Christ. Moreover, the concept of depravity and fallenness has had serious consequences throughout history. It has kept believers doubtful of their spiritual experiences and dependent on Church authority for spiritual guidance, while fostering a deep sense of guilt and unworthiness. The ramifications of original sin extend from projected guilt and violence, such as Rene Girard’s concept of the Scapegoat, to technological transhumanism and the aim of digital immortality, to our current political climate of “Make America Great Again,” all of which are based on human weakness and the desire for power.
There is very little reason to maintain the doctrine of original sin and every reason to find alternate meanings to the question of evil and suffering. What if we replaced original sin with original love? Could we understand moral disorder as resistance to or rejection of love—not simply human love, but the unresolved God of love?
Jung offers a psycho-religious approach to fallen nature and suffering that departs from traditional Christian theology. In his “Answer to Job,” he explores how humans connect with religious depths through the unconscious. While traditional Christianity views God as immutable and impassible, Jung conceptualizes God as the principal archetype of the unconscious, similar to Paul Tillich’s notion of God as the “unconditional ground.” For Jung, evil stems not from a privation of good or fallen human nature, but from an incomplete union between divinity and humanity. Jung proposes that God needs humankind to achieve wholeness and completion. Through incarnation, God acquires an expanded and higher consciousness. Divine love exists when God becomes God within us—it is a potential energy that must be activated to demonstrate its power. The individuation processes of God and person are interconnected, suggesting God is inseparable from the self.
Evil, according to Jung, originates from God’s dark side—the “wild” and “unrequited” God who seeks completion in the human soul. God and humans require each other for life’s wholeness. Jung suggests they unite in human consciousness as the deep meaning of history, both personally and collectively. By understanding evil at the psychic level rather than from a primeval fall, we can better comprehend Jesus’s life as one who reconciled his psyche with the inner energy of divine love. Jesus, confronting darkness and doubt, showed the human potential for divine love. Christ embodies the ideal self—the psychic totality of the individual. His life demonstrates how freedom in love disrupts boundaries of division, showing that costly love demands depth and courage.
Without integrating evil, there is no totality—what remains unconscious manifests externally as fate. While original sin binds us to weakness and guilt, “original love” empowers freedom and choice. Adam and Eve symbolize the internal forces of male power (anima) and feminine receptivity (animus). Without reconciling these forces through integrated consciousness, they manifest themselves outwardly as patriarchy and submission. Without integration of the self, the world is godless chaos.
If original sin represents a split psyche of good and evil, original love expresses wholeness and deep relationship. We need a new season of wholeness and love, a realization that God needs us to become whole and complete. The symbol of Christ is the individuation of God and person: God becomes something new in us and we become something new in God. This new person is the Christic, the person of new life, committed to the energies of love and the creation of a new world. For what we are, the world will become.
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