Quiz: On God, the Creator and Provider

According to the teaching of the Church, every descendant of Adam without exception is born bearing the consequences of our first parents’ disobedience. In theological literature, these consequences are typically designated not by the full phrase “the consequences of original sin,” but by its abbreviated form — “original sin” or “ancestral sin.” This concept must be distinguished from the term denoting the actual transgression committed by our first parents. Context determines the distinction. What constitutes the essence of “original sin”? By turning away from the Creator, man turned away from the Source of his existence — he severed himself from Him. In departing from the Fountain of Life, and thus from the Fountain of Wholeness, man inflicted corruption upon his own nature. All Adam’s descendants, without exception, are now born damaged in both soul and body, with an inclination toward evil rather than good. Before the Fall the flesh was subordinate to the soul, the soul was governed by the spirit, the spirit was directed toward God. After the Fall the flesh rebelled against the soul, even dominating it. The human spirit, instead of ascending upward, became fixated on worldly, sinful pleasures Again: this inherited corruption, this sinful predisposition, this root of sin, is what Orthodox theology terms "original sin."