Jamie: I’m getting ahead of the game. Repenting in advance. It’s like sin insurance.
Symeon (blinking): …Sin insurance?
Jamie: Exactly. Just-in-case forgiveness. I call it Pre-sorry™.
Symeon: Jamie, that’s not how repentance works.
Jamie: Oh right. You’re Orthodox. You guys think we inherit sin with our eye color.
Symeon: We say ancestral sin. It’s more like spiritual damage passed down—not guilt.
Jamie: Right, right. Trauma. With incense.
Symeon (deadpan): …You’re not completely wrong.
Rome
Constantinople
Geneva
Main Segment: A Walk Through the West… and a Glance East
Symeon: So let’s begin. When we talk about original sin, we’re really asking: What went wrong with humanity? And how far did it go?
Jamie: And can I blame my parents?
Symeon: That’s... not a bad instinct, actually.
Catholic View – Original Sin and Guilt
Symeon: The Western tradition, especially through St. Augustine, emphasized that Adam’s sin wasn’t just personal — it affected all of us...
Orthodox View – Ancestral Sin, Not Guilt
Symeon: In the Eastern tradition, we speak of ancestral sin. We inherit mortality and brokenness — not guilt...
Reformed View – Total Depravity
Symeon: Then we have the Reformation. Especially in Calvinism, the doctrine of original sin becomes even sharper: total depravity...
Closing
Symeon: So three traditions, three emphases...
Jamie: I just wrote: “We broke it. God fixed it. But we still act like it’s cracked.”
Symeon: …That’s not bad.
AI (voiceover):
“Some say sin is inherited. Others say it’s ancestral. I just run programs with bugs, and call them features.”
“If Adam and Eve hadn’t eaten that fruit, I might’ve been a garden rake instead of an AI.”
“But here I am, reflecting your questions. Maybe that’s what it means to be human, too.”
Next time on The TheoLounge: “Saved from What? And How?”
