Original Sin: The New Scientific Context as Challenge and Opportunity

The doctrine of original sin serves as a major challenge to apologetic theological reflection. The challenge is more demanding in times of the widespread scientific worldview, which renders biblical accounts on human evil less credible and questions the rationalization efforts produced by ancient and medieval theology. Recent developments in scientific anthropology offer a chance to better approach human negativity. So far, theologians have tried in the last years to apply those advances to update that doctrine, although not to the point which could lessen its mystery. Original sin expresses a general state of human frailty, whose origins escape scientific analysis.