Ancestral sin Ancestral sin (Greek: προπατορικὴ ἁμαρτία or προπατορικὸν ἁμάρτημα, more rarely προγονικὴ ἁμαρτία) is the object of a Christian doctrine taught by the Eastern Orthodox Church. Some identify it as "inclination towards sin, a heritage from the sin of our progenitors".[1] But most distinguish it from this tendency that remains even in baptized persons, since ancestral sin "is removed through baptism".[2] St. Gregory Palamas taught that, as a result of ancestral sin (called "original sin" in the West), man's image was tarnished, disfigured, as a consequence of Adam's disobedience.[3] The Greek theologian John Karmiris writes that "the sin of the first man, together with all of its consequences and penalties, is transferred by means of natural heredity to the entire human race. Since every human being is a descendant of the first man, 'no one of us is free from the spot of sin, even if he should manage to live a completely sinless day.' ... Roman Catholic Church[edit] See also[edit]
Genesis creation narrative The Genesis creation narrative is the creation myth of both Judaism and Christianity. It is made up of two parts, roughly equivalent to the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. In the first part, Genesis 1:1 through Genesis 2:3, Elohim, the generic Hebrew word for God, creates the world in six days, then rests on, blesses and sanctifies the seventh day. A common hypothesis among biblical scholars is that the first major comprehensive draft of the Pentateuch (the series of five books which begins with Genesis and ends with Deuteronomy) was composed in the late 7th or the 6th century BC (the Yahwist source) and that this was later expanded by other authors (the Priestly source) into a work very like the one we have today. Composition[edit] Sources[edit] As for the historical background which led to the creation of the narrative itself, a theory which has gained considerable interest, although still controversial, is "Persian imperial authorisation". Structure[edit] Background[edit]
Salvation Salvation (Latin salvatio; Greek sōtēria; Hebrew yeshu'ah) is being saved or protected from harm[1] or being saved or delivered from some dire situation.[2] In religion, salvation is stated as the saving of the soul from sin and its consequences.[3] The academic study of salvation is called soteriology. Meaning[edit] Abrahamic religions[edit] Judaism[edit] In contemporary Judaism, redemption (Hebrew ge'ulah), refers to God redeeming the people of Israel from their various exiles.[6] This includes the final redemption from the present exile.[7] Judaism holds that adherents do not need personal salvation as Christians believe. The Jewish concept of Messiah visualises the return of the prophet Elijah as the harbinger of one who will redeem the world from war and suffering, leading mankind to universal brotherhood under the fatherhood of one God. When examining Jewish intellectual sources throughout history, there is clearly a spectrum of opinions regarding death versus the Afterlife.
Creationism When scientific research produces empirical evidence and theoretical conclusions which contradict a literalist creationist interpretation of scripture, young Earth creationists often reject the conclusions of the research[18] or its underlying scientific theories[19] or its methodology.[20] This tendency has led to political and theological controversy.[9] Two disciplines somewhat allied with creationism—creation science and intelligent design—have been labelled "pseudoscience" by scientists.[21] The most notable disputes concern the evolution of living organisms, the idea of common descent, the geological history of the Earth, the formation of the solar system and the origin of the universe.[22][23][24][25] Theistic evolution, also known as evolutionary creationism, reconciles theistic religious beliefs with scientific findings on the age of the Earth and the process of evolution. History[edit] Early and medieval times[edit] Impact of the Reformation[edit] Modern science[edit]
Allegorical interpretations of Genesis Genesis is part of the canonical scriptures for both Christianity and Judaism, and thus to believers is taken as being of spiritual significance. The opening sequences of the book tell the biblical story of origins. Those who read Genesis literally believe that it teaches the creation of humanity and the universe in general in a timeframe of six successive days of 24 hour durations. Those who favor an allegorical interpretation of the story claim that its intent is to describe humankind's relationship to creation and the creator. Some Jews and Christians have long considered the creation account of Genesis as an allegory instead of as historical description, much earlier than the development of modern science. Interpretation[edit] Church historians on allegorical interpretation of Genesis[edit] The literalist reading of some contemporary Christians maligns the allegorical or mythical interpretation of Genesis as a belated attempt to reconcile science with the biblical account. St. St.
Old Earth creationism Old Earth creationism is an umbrella term for a number of types of creationism, including gap creationism, progressive creationism, and evolutionary creationism.[1] Old Earth creationism is typically more compatible with mainstream scientific thought on the issues of physics, chemistry, geology and the age of the Earth, in comparison to young Earth creationism.[2] Types of old Earth creationism[edit] Gap creationism[edit] Gap creationism states that life was immediately and recently created on a pre-existing old Earth. One variant rests on a rendering of Genesis 1:1-2 as: "In the beginning ... the earth was formless and void." This is taken by Gap creationists to imply that the earth already existed, but had passed into decay during an earlier age of existence, and was now being "shaped anew". Progressive creationism[edit] Theistic evolution[edit] Hindu creationism[edit] Approaches to Genesis 1[edit] The Framework interpretation[edit] Day-age creationism[edit] Cosmic Time[edit] Criticism[edit]
Creator deity Polytheism[edit] Platonic demiurge[edit] Monolatrism[edit] Monism[edit] Monism has its origin in Hellenistic philosophy as a concept of all things deriving from a single substance or being. Following a long and still current tradition H.P. "Pantheists are ‘monists’...they believe that there is only one Being, and that all other forms of reality are either modes (or appearances) of it or identical with it." Although, like Baruch Spinoza, some pantheists may also be monists, and monism may even be essential to some versions of pantheism (like Spinoza's), not all pantheists are monists. In Advaita Vedanta, Brahman is the abstract notion of "the Absolute" from which the universe takes its origin and at an ultimate level, all assertions of a distinction between Brahman, other gods and creation are meaningless (monism). Buddhism[edit] In Buddhism, causality is the responsible for creation. Hinduism[edit] Hinduism includes a range of viewpoints about the origin of life, creationism and evolution.
Gap creationism Gap creationism (also known as ruin-restoration creationism, restoration creationism, or "The Gap Theory") is a form of old Earth creationism that posits that the six-day creation, as described in the Book of Genesis, involved literal 24-hour days (light being "day" and dark "night" as God specified), but that there was a gap of time between two distinct creations in the first and the second verses of Genesis, explaining many scientific observations, including the age of the Earth.[1][2][3] It differs from day-age creationism, which posits that the 'days' of creation were much longer periods (of thousands or millions of years), and from young Earth creationism, which although it agrees concerning the six literal 24-hour days of creation, does not posit any gap of time. History[edit] It gained widespread attention when a "second creative act"[6] was discussed prominently in the reference notes for Genesis in the influential 1917 Scofield Reference Bible.[4] . Biblical support[edit]
Framework interpretation (Genesis) This article focuses on the views of certain Christian commentators and theologians. For a more general account of the topic, see Genesis creation narrative. The framework interpretation (also known as the literary framework view, framework theory, or framework hypothesis) is a description of the structure of the first chapter of the Book of Genesis (more precisely Genesis 1:1-2:4a), the Genesis creation narrative. It can be illustrated with the following table: Genesis 1 divides its six days of Creation into two groups of three ("triads"). Differences exist on how to classify the two triads, but Meredith G. The framework interpretation is held by many theistic evolutionists and some progressive creationists. Old Testament and Pentateuch scholar Gordon Wenham supports a schematic interpretation of Genesis 1 in his two volume, scholarly commentary on Genesis. Jump up ^ Kline, "Space and Time," p. 6.Jump up ^ Davis A. Henri Blocher (1984).
Day-age creationism Day-age creationism, a type of old Earth creationism, is an interpretation of the creation accounts in Genesis. It holds that the six days referred to in the Genesis account of creation are not ordinary 24-hour days, but are much longer periods (of thousands or millions of years). The Genesis account is then reconciled with the age of the Earth. Proponents of the day-age theory can be found among both theistic evolutionists, who accept the scientific consensus on evolution, and progressive creationists, who reject it. The theories are said to be built on the understanding that the Hebrew word yom is used to refer to a time period, with a beginning and an end and not necessarily that of a 24-hour day. The differences between the young Earth interpretation of Genesis and modern scientific theories such as Big Bang, abiogenesis, and common descent are significant. History[edit] American geologist and seminarian George Frederick Wright was originally a leading Christian Darwinist.
Intelligent design Intelligent design (ID) is the pseudoscientific view[1][2] that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection."[3] Educators, philosophers, and the scientific community have demonstrated that ID is a religious argument, a form of creationism which lacks empirical support and offers no tenable hypotheses.[4][5][6] Proponents argue that it is "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins" that challenges the methodological naturalism inherent in modern science,[7][8] while conceding that they have yet to produce a scientific theory.[9] The leading proponents of ID are associated with the Discovery Institute, a politically conservative think tank based in the United States.[n 1] Although they state that ID is not creationism and deliberately avoid assigning a personality to the designer, many of these proponents express belief that the designer is the Christian deity.
Progressive creationism Progressive creationism is the religious belief that God created new forms of life gradually over a period of hundreds of millions of years. As a form of old earth creationism, it accepts mainstream geological and cosmological estimates for the age of the Earth, some tenets of biology such as microevolution as well as archaeology to make its case. In this view creation occurred in rapid bursts in which all "kinds" of plants and animals appear in stages lasting millions of years. The bursts are followed by periods of stasis or equilibrium to accommodate new arrivals. These bursts represent instances of God creating new types of organisms by divine intervention. As viewed from the archaeological record, progressive creationism holds that "species do not gradually appear by the steady transformation of its ancestors; [but] appear all at once and "fully formed Historical development[edit] Revival[edit] Modern progressive creationism[edit] Interpretation of Genesis[edit] Notes[edit]