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To: Romulus
In Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas says:
The Apostle says (Rm. 5:12): "By one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death." Nor can this be understood as denoting imitation or suggestion, since it is written (Wis. 2:24): "By the envy of the devil, death came into this world." It follows therefore that through origin from the first man sin entered into the world.

I answer that, According to the Catholic Faith we are bound to hold that the first sin of the first man is transmitted to his descendants, by way of origin. For this reason children are taken to be baptized soon after their birth, to show that they have to be washed from some uncleanness.

Reply to Objection 1. The son is said not to bear the iniquity of his father, because he is not punished for his father's sin, unless he share in his guilt. It is thus in the case before us: because guilt is transmitted by the way of origin from father to son, even as actual sin is transmitted through being imitated.

Reply to Objection 2. Although the soul is not transmitted, because the power in the semen is not able to cause the rational soul, nevertheless the motion of the semen is a disposition to the transmission of the rational soul: so that the semen by its own power transmits the human nature from parent to child, and with that nature, the stain which infects it: for he that is born is associated with his first parent in his guilt, through the fact that he inherits his nature from him by a kind of movement which is that of generation.

Reply to Objection 3. Although the guilt is not actually in the semen, yet human nature is there virtually accompanied by that guilt.

Reply to Objection 4. The semen is the principle of generation, which is an act proper to nature, by helping it to propagate itself. Hence the soul is more infected by the semen, than by the flesh which is already perfect, and already affixed to a certain person.

Also, in his Treatise On Evil, Aquinas writes on QQ. 4, A. 7, response 6, that "Christ was unable to contract original sin because he was conceived of the Virgin without semen from a man"

The idea that Christ had no earthly father because Adam also did not seems flawed, since he had no mother either. I can't find where that explanation is an official Catholic doctrine either.

The most literal interpretation of Romans 5:12 - "sin entered the world through one man" - would mean that original sin is transmitted through the father. Aquinas obviously understood it to mean that.

98 posted on 12/20/2021 9:57:21 PM PST by lasereye
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To: lasereye

St. Thomas opined against the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception because he had an erroneous grasp of ensoulment. He believed (rightly) that grace cannot be received by a creature that has no rational soul, and was of the opinion that the soul did not enter the body until quickening. He lacked a modern understanding of embryology. We know now that semen is not the sole principle of human generation — right? Jesus is descended from Adam through his mother, after all. Why do you think he called himself the “son of man”. Don’t you know that “Adam” is “man” in Hebrew? So while he is possibly the best systematic theologian the Latin Church has ever produced, St. Thomas was wrong about the Immaculate Conception. Merry Christmas.


99 posted on 12/21/2021 6:09:25 AM PST by Romulus
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