Born Bad: Original Sin and the Making of the Western World

by James Boyce

Overview

"Original sin is the Western world's creation story."

According to the Christian doctrine of original sin, humans are born inherently bad, and only through God's grace can they achieve salvation. In this captivating and controversial book, acclaimed historian James Boyce explores how this centuries–old concept has shaped the Western view of human nature right up to the present. Boyce traces a history of original sin from Adam and Eve, St. Augustine, and Martin Luther to Adam Smith, Sigmund Freud, and Richard Dawkins, and explores how each has contributed to shaping our conception of original sin.

Boyce argues that despite the marked decline in church attendance in recent years, religious ideas of morality still very much underpin our modern secular society, regardless of our often being unaware of their origins. If today the specific doctrine has all but disappeared (even from churches), what remains is the distinctive discontent of Western people—the feelings of guilt and inadequacy associated not with doing wrong, but with being wrong. In addition to offering an innovative history of Christianity, Boyce offers new insights in to the creation of the West.

Born Bad is the sweeping story of a controversial idea and the remarkable influence it still wields.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781619027183
Publisher:	Catapult
Publication date:	05/10/2016
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

James Boyce is the multiple award–winning author of 1835 and Van Diemen's Land. He has a PhD from the University of Tasmania, where he is an honorary research associate of the School of Geography and Environmental Studies.

Read an Excerpt

Introduction

What is wrong with me? This question has haunted the West for fifteen hundred years, but until recently it came with an answer – which was called original sin. Western people believed they were ‘born bad’ because they had inherited the sin of the first humans. Their understanding of themselves was shaped, as it has been in almost all cultures, by an overarching story of creation. Adam and Eve is an ancient myth whose origins are lost in the campfires of prehistory, making the Western interpretation of the story a comparatively recent innovation. The West shared the same primal parents as now vanished tribes, Jews, Muslims and Eastern (Orthodox) Christians, but it stood alone in seeing the eating of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden as the original sin – not only the first sin of human history, but also one that subsequently became innate to the human condition. Only in this version of creation did a decision to disobey God in Paradise become a sin that was inherited by all.

The articulation of original sin and the making of the Western world were enmeshed. The doctrine, like the West itself, was a product of the tumultuous breakup of the Latin-speaking part of the Roman Empire. It underpinned the distinctive religion formulated by the Catholic Church as a Christian culture was built out of the imperial ruins. The creation story was the spiritual foundation on which the Western world was made, directing how people understood the divine, each other, the natural world and, above all, themselves.

Original sin is not part of the wider Judeo-Christian tradition. For Jews and Eastern Christians, the doctrine’s divorce of sin from morality was incomprehensible. It was not just the modern mind that found it difficult to imagine how Adam’s sin could become everyone’s, or to conceive of a God who would condemn otherwise innocent people to hell because of it. In no other religion were people understood to be born bad; in no other were they conceived with a permanently corrupted nature that faced the wrath and judgment of God. The deity of the West is unique in judging people before they commit a moral act. Those who first fought against the doctrine, in the fifth century, argued that a newborn baby could not be regarded as a sinner. They lost the debate.

Table of Contents

Preface 1

Part I Original Sin in Christendom

1 The Father of Original Sin 7

2 The Contest for the Western Soul 14

3 The Challenge of the Celts 22

4 Scholars and Sinners 29

5 The Forgiveness Industry 35

6 A Peasant's World 40

7 All Shall Be Well 47

8 The Meaning of Marrying a Nun 55

9 John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion 69

10 Spreading the Word 76

11 The Puritan Foundation of Modern Life 82

12 Reclaiming Augustine 88

Part II Original Sin in the Modern World

Preface 97

13 A Christian Enlightenment 100

14 The Perfect Evangelical 112

15 Celebrating Christian Choice 121

16 Adam Smith and Market Salvation 128

17 Imperfect Democracy 137

18 Original Sin in an Age of Progress 144

19 Freud and the Science of Self 154

20 Staying Positive 163

21 The Selfish Gene 176

22 Where to for Salvation? 188

23 Beyond Good or Bad 192

Appendix: Where Did Original Sin Come From? 198

Acknowledgements 203

Notes 206

Index 252

Editorial Reviews

"Boyce provides a solid, albeit complex, description of the presence of original sin concepts . . . the book has tremendous merit in its presentation of a nearly 2,000–year history of a major aspect of the Western intellectual tradition."—Choice

"Born Bad is one of the best books on the history of the evolution of Christianity and its ideology. It is beautifully written and very well argued. This book is a necessary read for all those who are interested in Christianity, its evolution, and its history."—Washington Book Review

"James Boyce has...written a brilliant and exhilarating work of popular scholarship." —The Washington Post

"[Born Bad] makes a compelling argument...an engrossing study...Boyce leads us into new understandings of some of the central figures in Western culture....This is an exceptional, highly recommended work, innovative and creative in surprising ways."—Publisher's Weekly Starred Review

"Boyce covers a lot of ground and explores a number of authors in this wide–ranging treatment, and the result is impressive. Readable and comprehensive, the book provides worthwhile food for thought. Boyce successfully illustrates the ability of original sin to dominate Western culture for nearly two millennia."—Kirkus

"Born Bad is one of the best books on the history of the evolution of Christianity and its ideology. It is beautifully written and very well argued. This book is a necessary read for all those who are interested in Christianity, its evolution, and its history." —The Washington Book Review

From the Publisher

★ 04/13/2015
The doctrine of original sin, which has roots in the theological urgings of St. Augustine, has long been a requisite element of Western Christian orthodoxy. Although this teaching has faded from public discourse in recent years, Australian historian Boyce (Van Diemen’s Land) makes a compelling argument for its initial and continuing relevance to Western cultures, influencing government and society as well as religion. Not so much a theological treatise as a history of an idea, this fascinating work by an accomplished scholar is an engrossing study of the development of the Western church and Western society, showing how original sin helped define the political, economic, and social evolution of the West. Boyce leads us into new understandings of some of the central figures in Western culture. Artists, poets, and others take on new life in light of the effects of original sin in their thinking. Especially intriguing are his insights into America’s founding fathers’ reflections on human depravity and their hope for an enlightened democracy, a yearning that shrugs off some of Western Christendom’s orthodoxy. This is an exceptional, highly recommended work, innovative and creative in surprising ways. (May)

Publishers Weekly

2015-03-20
Intriguing study of how the Christian concept of original sin weaves its way through Western history. Boyce (1835: The Founding of Melbourne & the Conquest of Australia, 2012, etc.) sets out "neither to defend nor condemn the Western creation story, but to show that its influence was not ended by science and secularism." He does so successfully. The author begins with an interpretation of the creation story found in Genesis, which was given voice especially by the fourth-century theologian Augustine. Boyce begins with Augustine, laying the groundwork for an understanding of human nature that permeates to the present day. The author points to a number of dissenting voices—the Pelagian heresy, Celtic Christianity—that eventually gave way to the prevailing Catholic view of the inherited sinful nature of all humanity. Even during the Protestant Reformation, Boyce explains, original sin flourished in the legacy of John Calvin, among others. Moving on, Boyce argues that as the Enlightenment fundamentally changed the West's views on faith, original sin nevertheless remained as a core understanding of basic human nature. "Original sin was not only a religious dogma," he writes. "It also supplied a framework in which to understand what it meant to be human." While thinkers such as David Hume, Adam Smith, and James Madison may have given faith a secondary place, they all saw human nature as fundamentally corrupted and believed society had to be built on that premise. With the advent of capitalism, modern democracy, and evangelical Christianity, original sin was set to play a continuing role into the 21st century. Boyce covers a lot of ground and explores a number of authors in this wide-ranging treatment, and the result is impressive. Readable and comprehensive, the book provides worthwhile food for thought. Boyce successfully illustrates the ability of original sin to dominate Western culture for nearly two millennia.

Kirkus Reviews