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“From Saint Augustine to Hellboy, from Chesterton to Rebecca West and Steven Pinker, Alan Jacobs' well-written and intelligent Original Sin is a examination of the history of a doctrine. The writing is intentionally light-hearted, as Jacobs believes that the doctrine's true effect is the realization that our selves are all equally absurd.
It is important to point out, firstly, what the book is not about. The doctrine of original sin is not concerned with the supposed original sin, the sin of Adam and Eve. Rather, with the sin which every human has as a part of his makeup, from his very origin. To many modern sensibilities this doctrine may seem to have cruel implications, and Jacobs does address and explore them. However, as mathematician Blaise Pascal wrote, "Certainly nothing jolts us more rudely than this doctrine, and yet but for this mystery, the most incomprehensible of all, we remain incomprehensible to ourselves." It answers, Jacobs feels, the age old question which any rejection of original sin still needs to account for: Unde hoc malum?
Jacobs explores not only the history of the idea of original sin, but also its implications and how they have affected history. He shows that while seeming to be a contemptible and horrible idea, it actually is the most merciful and democratic of views regarding sin; and that it gave rise to the first "universal democracy" which only ended, as the German emigrant Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy claimed, in modern days at about the time of the second World War. That its results are, in the words of Chesterton, "pathos and brotherhood, and a thunder of laughter and pity; for only with original sin can we at once pity the beggar and distrust the king." Throughout its history men have written and spoken ardently against it, and Jacobs chronicles these debates in a studied yet casual manner.
One particularly interesting section is the discussion of Rousseau's ideas. Certainly, as the introduction states, quoting Randall Jarrell, "Most of us know, now, that Rousseau was wrong: that man, when you knock his chains off, sets up the death camps." However, the idea of the innocence of children and the nobility of savages still haunts our minds to a large degree, to the point that anything we say on original sin in regards to children sounds ridiculous to our modern ears. Jacobs explores the different ways in which the idea of the noble savage was bettered since its origins in the 18th century, but he never comes to a satisfying picture -- perhaps because no such picture was arrived at in that time. He might have included a couple lines, for those seeking wisdom as well as history, such as to suggest that though primitives live outside of the corruption and squalor of more complex societies, they still bear the stain of human nature, and themselves rely on forms of strict moral tradition passed on as oral culture. To his credit, though, he does realize that the idea of the noble savage and the idea of the blank slate -- two ideas of human nature often held in concert -- are logically opposing and contradicting.
Perhaps the most interesting idea in Jacobs' book is the conception of the Divided Self. That we are neither basically good nor basically bad, but suffer a division within us between the two, a warring of two opposing impulses, which often gets the better of us. It is a conception of the doctrine of original sin that has both biblical support (Paul's "For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, I do.") and modern ratification (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's line about the division between good and evil lying not between states, classes or parties, but through the human heart).
There is something quite substantially true in the idea that we are inherently flawed and corrupted and that our species is unperfectable. yet, with Pelagius, Augustine's contemporary and rival, I cannot help but think that the doctrine, by itself and over-emphasized, while it is likely to inspire feelings of charity and mercy, is not likely to compel us to merely do our work, the work commanded by Christ. Thankfully, this lack in the doctrine has been addressed more than satisfactorily in the writings of C.S. Lewis and George MacDonald, among others, though Jacob's book does not ever mention their thoughts on his subject. Given that Jacobs' previous book was a biography of Lewis' ideas, one cannot use the excuse that the author was unfamiliar with these writings.
While the book is an excellent history of the concept, it must be said ultimately -- and Jacobs himself readily admits -- that, as medieval philosopher Erasmus opined, "such theological trivia" as the origin of sin "simply distract us from the difficult task of loving a faithful Christian life." As long as this is realized, as long as Jacob's book remains for the reader merely an intellectual exploration not standing in the way of doing one's work, it is a fascinating and wise exploration of Western humanity's attempts to understand ourselves. ”
Michael wrote this review Friday, August 14 2009.
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