The Encyclopedia of World Religions

sin S 425

As a result, God sent his son J ESUS to die on the CROSS . Some Christians view this act as a “substi tutionary atonement.” In dying on the cross, Jesus paid the penalty that human beings owed to God because of their sin. Like Jews, Christians distinguish sins of omis sion and commission and intentional and uninten tional sins. Protestant and especially Roman Cath olic thinkers have classified sin in other ways. In the fourth century C . E . a British monk named Pelagius taught that children were sinless. They resembled A DAM before the F ALL . In response, A UGUSTINE OF H IPPO developed the idea of original sin. It says that human beings are from the start born into a condition that is corrupted by sin. As a result, it is inevitable that all human beings will sin in thought, word, and deed. These sinful acts are called actual sins, to distinguish them from inherited original sin. Roman Catholic thinkers also classified sins as more and less severe: mortal and venial sins, respectively. According to Thomas A QUINAS , a mortal sin turns a person away from God. There fore, mortal sins must be forgiven in the SACRA MENT of penance. A venial sin only disturbs a per son’s relationship with God. Tradition speaks of seven deadly sins: pride, envy, anger, sloth, ava rice, gluttony, and lust. Protestant thinkers reject the distinction between mortal and venial sins. For them, all sins equally disrupt one’s relation ship with God. Only God’s GRACE can restore this relationship. Most religions recognize that human beings are less than perfect, but they do not think of this imperfection as sin. The classical scholar E. R. Dodds once distinguished two types of culture, “shame-cultures” and “guilt-cultures”. According to Dodds, some cultures, like the early Greeks, emphasize public shame at failure. Others empha size guilt that results from improper actions. In Judaism and Christianity, guilt may be seen as a psychological counterpart to sin. Just as important, not all religions have conceived of ethical injunctions as instructions from God. In H INDUISM , B UDDHISM , and J AINISM , bad actions do not offend a creator who has

Sikhism has no formally ordained priests, although certain sects recognize living gurus. A committee known as the SGPC oversees Sikh shrines in India, where the vast majority of Sikhs still live. Its members are elected. SIGNIFICANCE Once considered a sect of H INDUISM , Sikhism has come to be recognized as a religion in its own right. At the beginning of the 21st century, it claimed roughly 20 million adherents. Further reading: Gurinder Singh Mann, Sikhism (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2004); W. H. McLeod, Sikhs and Sikhism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004); Patwant Singh, The Sikhs (London: John Murray, 1999). sin A violation of G OD ’s instructions. Although the idea of sin is important in J UDAISM , it is espe cially so in C HRISTIANITY . The goal of Judaism is to sanctify life, that is, to make life holy by following God’s instructions. Judaism recognizes that people are tempted to act in ways that violate God’s instructions. In other words, they are tempted to sin. Indeed, at some time or other every person sins. Even M OSES , who received the T ORAH from God personally, was not without sin. The RABBIS , or those who made Jewish law, have classified sins. Some sins are sins of com mission: People do something that violates God’s instructions. Some sins are sins of omission: Peo ple fail to do something that God has instructed. People do some sins intentionally. But people can also sin without intending to do so or even being aware that they have sinned. In any case, Jews believe that, like a compassionate parent, God for gives persons who sincerely repent. On the D AY OF A TONEMENT Jews fast, pray, and collectively ask God’s forgiveness for their sins. Jews do not, how ever, see SALVATION from sin as the most important goal of Judaism. For traditional Christians, sin has created a condition from which all people need to be saved.