Translator's Preface

Usage

``Sin''

a word no longer used?

``Mildly facetious'' (Thomas Mann)

What people claim to mean by the word and what they really mean

Keeping silent vs. not speaking up when one should

``Conflict between guilt and sin'' (Nicholai Hartmann)

Violation of an absolute norm

Missing the Mark

Evil, lapse, guilt

The structure of the false step: more a violation of a behavioral rule than a failure to hit the mark?

All lapses outside of the moral realm are inadvertent

The inno

cence of art?

``Activity'' and ``Labor''

Only moral lapses make the doer evil

Unavailing attempts to make the immensity of sin comprehensible

Contra Naturam, Contra Rationem

Sin as ``contrary to order''

What does ``order'' mean?

Sin as an act ``contrary to nature''

Human nature: the quintessence of what man is meant to be as a created being

Why no one can sin with full heart

The ``theological'' neglect of human nature

Sin as an action contrary to reason

Reason and conscience

Participation in the divine Logos

Contra Deum

``Contrary to order,'' ``contrary to nature,'' ``contrary to reason'': incommensurate terms

The true name for sin: a failing against God

Does ``natural man'' not know what sin is?

The answer of the tradition of humanity

Sin hides its true name

Failing God: too ``anthropomorphic'' a concept?

Pride and Desire

``Deliberately turning away from God''

Is sin really a ``turning away'' and not rather a ``turning toward''? The affirmation of creaturely goods cannot make a deed into a sin

Cupiditas and superbia

Pride as the inner wellspring of all sin

The demand for freedom as a possible mask of our turning away from God

Moral and Venial Sin

Curable and incurable infractions: a distinction not unique to Christianity

``Mortal'' sin and ``venial'' sin: not a distinction of a genus into species

What does ``deadly'' sin mean? The ``eter

nal in man'' as the place of the sinful act in the full sense

``Serious'' vs. ``deadly'' sins

The Paradox of Sin -- A Freely Chosen Compulsion

How can the deliberate denial of the ground of our existence ever be possible?

Various ways to surrender to this question

Why the appeal to man's free will is no answer

Man can sin because, like all creatures, he comes from nothing

Less an explanation than a reductio ad mysterium

The Stain of Sin

What remains after the sinful act is over

Macula, guilt, liability to punishment

Atonement as a chance to purge guilt

The problematic reliance on punishment decreed by man

The ``eternity-intention'' in deadly sin

``Hell'' as self

imprisonment with the prisoner holding the key

The prerequisite for forgiveness: recognizing and repenting one's own guilt

Contrition; self-accusation; confession

Man's autonomous self-under-standing and the attitude of the ``fallen angels''

The necessity for a divine act of forgiveness

Notes

Index