Augustana II: Of Original Sin

The very position of the article on original sin in the Augsburg Confession indicates the importance that the doctrine of original sin had for the consciousness of the Reformation. We turn from God to man; here the peculiarity of the Lutheran Confession confronts us: we cannot speak of God without thinking also of ourselves. God and our ‘I’ belong intimately together. Over against life as it should be there is life as it ought not to be. And so when the Augsburg Confession speaks of man, it speaks of sin, or better, of sinners, for it speaks personally and concretely of sinful man: quod omnes homines nascantur… cum peccato.” Our consciousness of God is inevitably linked with the consciousness of our sin: every thought of God wakens our conscience. Moreover, the Confession, when it speaks of sin and sinners, speaks at once of original sin, of sin as the given condition of all mankind- Theologus ... disputat de homine peccatore (Luther)