In his Is Original Sin in Scripture? Herbart
Haag gives a good overview of the historic Roman Catholic dogma of Original Sin
and why Rom 5 does not teach the
doctrine (see here). Here are some of the points from his summary at the end of
the book (while the book is hard to find, it is worth tracking down):
(1) The idea that Adam’s descendants are automatically
sinners because of the sin of their ancestor, and that they are already sinners
when they enter the world, is foreign to Holy Scripture. The well known verse
from the psalms, “Behold I was born in iniquity, and in sin did my mother
conceive me” (Ps. 51:7, 50:7), merely means that everyone born of woman becomes
a sinner in this world, without fail. The Bible often uses the device of
attributing a man’s later deeds or achievements to join him from the time of
his conception and birth. (Cf. for example Jeremiah 1:5, where Jeremiah is made
a prophet in his mother’s womb.)
(2) The “inheritance” of Adam’s sin means
rather that sin, after its entrance into the world, so spread that consequently
all men are born into a sinful world and in this sinful world become themselves
sinners.
(3) When the Holy Scriptures speak of the sin
of “Adam,” this is the expression folklore uses to describe the entrance of sin
into the world. Scripture in no way teaches the descent of the human race from
a single human couple when it uses such an expression. Whether mankind
originated in monogenism or polygenism is a question which only science can
answer; it is not a theological question. The thesis of polygenism cannot be
rejected on the basis of original sin.
(4) No man enters the world a sinner. As the
creature and image of God he is from his first hour surrounded by God’s
fatherly love. Consequently, he is not at birth, as is often maintained, an
enemy of God and a child of God’s wrath. A man becomes a sinner only through
his own individual and responsible action.
(5) However, the man who is born in the New
Covenant time does not automatically share in the life of the risen Christ. All
men are called to this life, but they receive it only when they become united
to Christ, become one with him as the branches with the vine (Cf. John 15:2-7).
(6) This union with the risen Christ is based
on faith and becomes effective through baptism. Holy Scripture calls baptism a
second birth (Cf. John 3:3-7). After birth according to the flesh man needs for
salvation birth according to the Spirit of God (Cf. John 1:13 and 3:6).
(7) Thus baptism does not bring about the
removal of “original sin,” but rather rebirth as a child of God; it makes man a
member of Christ. Through it he participates in Christ’s life; he is taken up
into the community of salvation, into the People of God, into the church. But participation
in the life of Christ cannot be reconciled with sin. Consequently, baptism also
becomes, for those who personally have committed sins, a sacrament which takes
away sins. (Herbert Haag, Is Original Sin
in Scripture? [trans. Dorothy Thompson; New York: Sheed and Ward, 1969], 106-8; note nos. 5-7 and the affirmation of baptismal regeneration)
