Original Sin in The Theology OF St Ireneaus and ST Augustine in the Context of Genomic Sciences : Towards an Existential Ontological Synthesis

Abstract

The new science of genomics and the biotechnologies that spring from it pose increasingly greater challenges to the classical doctrines of creation, origin of the soul, the fall and original sin, than ever before. The biotechnological advances which include in vitro fertilization, stem cell research, and cloning, can cause a blurring of the distinction between human and nonhuman, and definitely strain discourse with theology. Furthermore, the findings of genetic science that humanity could not have arisen from an ordinary couple but from a large population of individuals, and that humankind and the great apes, share a common ancestry raise questions about the historicity of Adam and Eve. There is an urgent need to forge a dialogue between theology and Christian tradition on the one hand, and the new biomedical and genomic sciences on the other, in order to get a better grip on the existential anxieties of sin. The aim of the study was to explore how John Schneider and his conversation partners engage Christian tradition with evolutionary biology in their efforts to reformulate a theology of sin. Specifically, this study used the existential-ontological method of John Macquarrie to reappraise the theses of St Augustine and St Irenaeus and the genomic sciences in order to recover greater meaningfulness for the disposition to sinfulness that inheres in humankind. The study shows that sin is both personal and corporate, but also inherited from our animal past in the form of those self-centered proclivities that in the past enabled us as a species to compete successively for survival. It may also manifest as disorder in our existence generated by tensions arising from the irresistible pull of diverse polarities in our lives. This affirms its universal presence and sway in our lives. The study adopts John Macquarrie’s immanentist model of a Being who is not only becoming in and with his creation, but one who enables his beings to choose the right path between dialectical opposites, thereby avoiding sin, whilst enabling the individual to participate in the creative process of ‘‘letting-be’’. Our model proposes God as an immanent being who directs evolution from within, giving humankind purpose, and a chance to achieve ultimate transcendence.