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Sinning in a Body Afflicted by Aging and Dementia

The experience of sin in a body afflicted by aging and dementia presents a complex theological challenge, particularly concerning the nature of sin, responsibility, and the physical body's role. While the Bible speaks of the body's decline and its connection to suffering and sin, theological traditions offer different perspectives on how physical infirmity relates to moral culpability [1, 2, 3].

The Psalms lament the physical toll of sorrow and iniquity, noting how strength fails and bones waste away [1]. Job describes an internal churning and days of affliction confronting him [2]. Paul, in Romans, speaks of "another law in my body, working against the law of my mind, and making me the servant of the law of sin which is in my flesh" [3]. This suggests a tension between the mind and the physical body, where the latter can be a conduit for sin.

Patristic and Scholastic thought grappled with the relationship between the body and sin. Augustine noted that "after the entrance of sin," the soul does not govern its own body absolutely according to its free will [11]. He also observed that concupiscence, though diminished in advancing years, remains even after baptism [12]. Aquinas distinguished between deformities arising from the lack of a limb and other types, stating that the bodies of the damned would not rise with deformities that imply a lack of proportion [5]. He also considered whether sin committed through passion should be called a sin of weakness, drawing an analogy between bodily weakness and the soul's inability to execute its proper action due to internal disorder [7].

Reformed theologians like Charles Hodge cautioned against theories that attribute sin solely to the body, arguing that such views "lower our sense of sin and guilt" by reducing moral evil to mere weakness. He contended that if sin arises from the constitution of human nature as sentient beings, responsibility for sin would be greatly lessened or destroyed [4]. Hodge emphasized that sin is deeply rooted in human depravity, as evidenced by figures like David and Isaiah who confessed their profound sinfulness [6]. John Calvin acknowledged that even saints are susceptible to concupiscence, being "ever and anon prompted and incited to lust, avarice, ambition, or other vices" [8].

Eastern Orthodox perspectives, as seen in John Chrysostom, highlight the destructive nature of sin, which can affect both the soul and the body [9]. Chrysostom also argued that a mortal body is not a hindrance to virtue, but rather can serve to keep individuals in order [10].

The question of sin in the context of aging and dementia thus involves discerning the extent to which physical and cognitive decline impacts moral agency and culpability. While the body's frailty can be a source of temptation or weakness, theological traditions generally maintain that sin originates in the soul and involves a degree of will, even if diminished [7, 11].

Sources

  1. Psalms “For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away. -- Psalms 31:10”
  2. Job “Job 30:27 (BSB) — I am churning within and cannot rest; days of affliction confront me.”
  3. Romans “Romans 7:23 (BBE) — But I see another law in my body, working against the law of my mind, and making me the servant of the law of sin which is in my flesh.”
  4. CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, section 39: is extinct. 3. This theory tends to lower our sense of sin and guilt. All moral evil becomes mere weakness, the yielding of the feebler powers of the spirit to the stronger forces of the flesh. If sin invariably, and by a law which controls men in their present state of existence, arises from the very constitution of their nature as sentient beings, then the responsibility for sin must be greatly lessened, if not entirely destroyed. 4. If the body be the seat and source of sin, then whatever tends to weaken the body or to reduce the force”
  5. theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Supplement (Supplementum), Of the Conditions under Which the Bodies of the Damned Will Rise Again, Art. 1: Article: Whether the bodies of the damned will rise again with their deformities? I answer that, Deformity in the human body is of two kinds. One arises from the lack of a limb: thus we say that a mutilated person is deformed, because he lacks due proportion of the parts to the whole. Deformities of this kind, without any doubt, will not be in the bodies of the damned, since all bodies of both wicked and good will rise again whole. Another deformity arises from ”
  6. CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, section 50: that he abhorred himself, and repented in dust and ashes. David’s Penitential Psalms are filled not only with the confessions of sin, but also with the avowals of his deep depravity in the sight of God. Isaiah cried out, Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. The ancient prophets, even when sanctified from the womb, pronounced their own righteousnesses as filthy rags. What is said of the body politic is everywhere represented as true of the individual man. The whole head is sick, and the whole h”
  7. theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, First Part of the Second Part (Prima Secundae), Of the Cause of Sin, on the Part of the Sensitive Appetite, Art. 3: Article: Whether a sin committed through passion, should be called a sin of weakness? I answer that, The cause of sin is on the part of the soul, in which, chiefly, sin resides. Now weakness may be applied to the soul by way of likeness to weakness of the body. Accordingly, man's body is said to be weak, when it is disabled or hindered in the execution of its proper action, through some disorder of the body's parts, so that the humors and members of the”
  8. CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 58: sending forth desires that allure and stimulate him to sin. They also acknowledge that the saints are still so liable to the disease of concupiscence, that, though opposing it, they cannot avoid being ever and anon prompted and incited to lust, avarice, ambition, or other vices. It is unnecessary to spend much time in investigating the sentiments of ancient writers. Augustine alone may suffice, as he has collected all their opinions with great care and fidelity. 311 311 See August. ad Bonif. Lib. 4 et cont. Julianum, Lib. 1 and 2. ”
  9. CCEL/NPNF (Eastern Orthodox) “John Chrysostom, Homilies on John & Hebrews: Homily XXXVIII. John v. 14 “Afterward Jesus findeth him in the Temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” [1.] A fearful thing is sin, fearful, and the ruin of the soul, and the mischief oftentimes through its excess has overflowed and attacked men’s bodies also. For since for the most part when the soul is diseased we feel no pain, but if the body receive though but a little hurt, we use every exertion to free it from its infirmity, because we are sensible of the infirmity, 997 997 Sav. ”
  10. CCEL/NPNF (Eastern Orthodox) “John Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 & 2 Corinthians: mayest shine brighter than the sun itself. [5.] “But,” says one, “had I not received a mortal body, I had not sinned.” Tell me then, had he a mortal body when he sinned? Surely not: for if it had been mortal before, it would not have undergone death as a punishment afterwards. And that a mortal body is no hindrance to virtue, but that it keeps men in order and is of the greatest service, is plain from what follows. If the expectation of immortality alone so lifted up Adam; had he been even immortal in reality, to what a pitch of arrogance would h”
  11. Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 1: Augustine — Confessions, Letters — TO MARCELLINUS, MY NOBLE LORD, JUSTLY DISTINGUISHED, MY SON VERY MUCH BELOVED, AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD. (part 5): to occupy an inferior, that is, an earthly body- after the entrance of sin, does not govern its own body absolutely according to its free will.' For I did not say, "after his sin," or "after he sinned," but after the entrance of sin, that whatever might afterwards, if possible, be determined by reason as to the question whether the sin was his own or the sin of the first parent of mankind, it might be perceived that in say”
  12. Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 5: Augustine — Anti-Pelagian — CHAP. 28 [XXV.]--CONCUPISCENCE REMAINS AFTER BAPTISM, JUST AS LANGUOR DOES AFTER RECOVERY FROM DISEASE; CONCUPISCENCE IS DIMINISHED IN PERSONS OF ADVANCING YEARS, AND INCREASED IN THE INCONTINENT.: If the question arises, how this concupiscence of the flesh remains in the regenerate, in whose case has been effected a remission of all sins whatever; seeing that human semination takes place by its means, even when the carnal offspring of even a baptized parent is born: or, at all events, if it may be in the case of a baptized parent concupiscence and not ”
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