Tertullian and his contribution to the formation of the western doctrine of the "original sin"

In this article the author proves that Tertullian was the first Western theologian who touched upon the whole complex of questions about the fall of the first man and its consequences for all mankind. According to Tertullian, Adam’s sin was his personal act of transgression of God’s commandment, made by his own free choice and deliberate deviation from his natural institution and inclination to the good. All the consequences of Adam’s fall can be divided into three classes: natural, judicial, and moral. The first class includes mortality, the irrational element of the soul and the “law of sin”, that affected the entire human nature - both soul and body, making them unclean and sources of all sins. The judicial consequences of the Adam’s fall consist of the offence to God and enmity between Him and all the humans stained with Adam’s guilt and condemnation, which implies a certain collective responsibility of all mankind before God. The way of inheriting of Adam’s sin with all its consequences consists in natural way of propagation of souls, i. e. traducianism, according to which every human soul is generated from Adam’s soul through the mediation of its parents, and inherits his nature, corrupted by sin. Certain difficulties are noted for understanding the inherited nature of Adam’s sin in Tertullian, caused by his views of baptism, where, on the one hand, all personal sins and the guilt are forgiven, the “veil of ancient corruption” is removed, and, on the other hand, only adult persons are in need of baptism, while new born children of Christian parents proclaimed innocent. In light of this, Tertullian’s doctrine on inherited sin appears to be contradictory. Moreover this doctrine is not at all compatible with Tertullian’s own views on the goodness of human nature, preserving in itself the “seed of good”, originally inserted into it by God, as well as the power of free will, thanks to which each person can not only recognize the difference between good and evil, but also freely choose the good and fulfill it, as well as choose and fulfill for the opposite, following the bad example of Adam’s disobedience, in which the moral consequences Adam’s fall may be seen. Nevertheless these negative consequences could be eliminated by means of the due satisfaction afforded to God and reconciliation with Him through repentance, which is a “price” settled by God for the forgiveness of sins and restoration of the innocence of a particular person. In this regard, Tertullian’s doctrine of Adam’s sin and its inherited nature is marked by an ambiguity, that was not peculiar to Tertullian alone, but was a common feature of many of his Christian contemporaries, as well as of the most of later Greek Fathers of the Church.