RELS 170 Christianity Terms

grace

divinely gifted participation, in the life of God; perfects our nature & deifies → ‘incarnation, infleshment’

sin

free offense against God, reason, truth, & right conscience. A failure in genuine love for God & neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. Wounds human nature, harms human solitary & impedes full communion w/God

actual sin

sin committed by a particular person (or a particular sinful act)

original sin

inherent fault shared by humanity; universal deprivation of grace resulting from abuse of freedom & disobedience from God; effects include clouding of intellect, tendency toward disordered attachments, breakdown of human solidarity & subjection to death

evil

absence of good that should be there

sin

irrational, described as ‘debt’ in Hebrew & in Lord’s prayer