The Fathers of the Church-East and West-in the early centuries shared the same perspective: humanity longs for liberation from the tyranny of death, sin, corruption and the devil which is only possible through the Life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is further posited that the approach of the ancient church points to a more therapeutic than juridical approach to pastoral care and counseling.ДЄfter a brief introductory anecdote, the relevance of which is to establish the point that вЂњLove, in fact, is the heart and soul of the theology of the early Church Fathers and of the Orthodox ChurchвЂќ, It is suggested that the doctrine of ancestral sin naturally leads to a focus on human death and Divine compassion as the inheritance from Adam, while the doctrine of original sin shifts the center of attention to human guilt and Divine wrath.

The impact of these two formulations on pastoral practice is investigated. The differences between the doctrine of Ancestral Sin-as understood in the church of the first two centuries and the present-day Orthodox Church-and the doctrine of Original Sin-developed by Augustine and his heirs in the Western Christian traditions-is explored. The straightforward purpose of Ancestral Versus Original Sin (hereafter AvOS) is succinctly laid out in the Abstract of the paper: Rather, what I find to be of great concern is the jettisoning of concepts that have, for the entirety of Church history, been part and parcel of Orthodox teaching, in favor of the innovations of a few recent thinkers who have been deeply influenced in significant (though certainly not in all) ways by postmodernism and Protestant Liberalism. I do so not to defend Western Christianity, though I often feel compelled to since that tradition is so deeply misrepresented. AntonyвЂ™s presentation, and to demonstrate the falsity of his artificial dichotomy between Ancestral and Original Sin. My purpose in this response is to take on several of what I consider to be the defects of Fr. The essay was written in early 2005 at the request of one of the editors of The Journal of Psychology and Christianity, a publication of the Christian Association for Psychological Studies, in order to provide an explanation of the alleged differences in the Eastern and Western doctrines of Original Sin and their bearing on pastoral practice. MaryвЂ™s Antiochian Orthodox Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the current debate over the Orthodox view of Original Sin, one popular entry is Ancestral Versus Original Sin: An Overview with Implications for Psychotherapy by the Very Rev.

Ancestral sin romanides