The Pride of Humanity and the Humility of God: Original Sin in Augustine’s De Trinitate

Abstract

This article argues that De Trinitate’s often neglected soteriological arc contains resources for a constructive and pastorally fruitful retrieval of Augustine’s theology of original sin. While De Trinitate presupposes the historical, causal, and hereditary dimensions of original sin elaborated in Augustine’s anti-Pelagian writings, its distinctive contribution lies in its phenomenological depiction of the inherited sinful condition as that in which each is complicit, that for which God became human to heal, and that from which Christians are progressively renewed. Consonant with recent Catholic magisterial and theological reflection, original sin emerges as a primordial wound knowable in light of its overcoming by Christ’s gracious descent.