duck5: H. Richard Niebuhr on Sin

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

H. Richard Niebuhr on Sin

how do you like this as part of a working definition?

Sin is not quite so much lawbreaking as vice; it is the perverse direction of the drives in man, or of his will in general, towards ends not proper to him.

H. Richard Niebuhr, The Responsible Self, Harper and Row, 1962?. p131.

for those interested, i think my next essay, due in around four weeks, is going to be discussing how important it is or isn't to affirm an historical fall (i'm thinking Romans 5:15 is pretty key).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: Thanks for the heads up Doug, looking into the same topic once life returns to post-exam "normalcy"...; 10:48 am
Anonymous said...: I like the end bit: "towards ends not proper to him."; 7:53 am
byron smith said...: I assume you're thinking Rom 5.15a means that it is not crucial to affirm a historical fall? Or am I barking up the wrong elephant?; 4:13 am
psychodougie said...: hi byron. sorry so long. yeah i wonder, as you may have noted from my new post.
one question is what type of sin was not like the transgression of Adam (5.14b)?

the problem is that as soon as there was man, he sinned. where is the fall in that? but if we start from a state of perfection, where does our eschatology sit?; 9:26 am