Reading update

[rhu]

Giving up on American Prometheus. It was too depressing.

Giving up on the Niebuhr. When discussing Judaism, he falls into the trap that so many Christian theologians do of misinterpreting Jewish beliefs in a Christian way, which invalidates most of what he has to say. For me, the last straw was when he asserts that the doctrines of yetzer harah and original sin are basically the same. As I understand original sin, it's the belief that from the moment of birth, one has inherited the taint of Adam's and Eve's sin in Eden, and will be damned if one does not undergo redemption through belief in the divinity of Jesus. (Yes?)

Yetzer harah, on the other hand, is simply the premise that within each of us is a pair of competing urges: the urge to do the right thing, even at personal cost, and the selfish urge which can lead us to do the wrong thing. The "inclination towards evil" is not an external tempter; it is not a fundamental belief that we are all intrinsically sinners. It is an observation about human nature.

Comments

[michelel72.livejournal.com]

As I understand original sin, it's the belief that from the moment of birth, one has inherited the taint of Adam's and Eve's sin in Eden, and will be damned if one does not undergo redemption through belief in the divinity of Jesus. (Yes?)
IANAC**, but I think this is basically the idea. I suspect many (most?) sects would replace "birth" with "conception"; and the means of redemption varies according to the sect (Catholics baptize infants; I think I've read that TCoJCoLDS requires baptism after a certain age -- eight?; and the "personal savior" varieties may not require baptism at all). But the fundamental concept does seem to be that one is intrinsically sinful.

** or should that be IANAX?

[cellio]

Yetzer hara is nothing like original sin. I can't speak for all of Christianity, but what I was taught as a child in the Roman Catholic church is basically what you said: that from the beginning (probably conception, not birth, but I don't remember for sure) we are all tainted by the sin in the garden, are inherently unworthy of divine salvation, and must be baptized and accept Jesus as savior to change that. No baptism/Jesus, no heaven -- and, actually, hell. (There used to be the notion of limbo for unbaptized babies, on the theory that it wasn't their fault.)

Christians (or at least Roman Catholics) also teach that the devil is always nearby trying to lure you into sin. That's an external force, not internal.