On Original Sin—G.K. Chesterton’s Examination of a Basic Christian Tenet
Marshall Tankersley
G.K. Chesterton argues that, contrary to popular belief, man is an innately sinful creature. While mankind likes to walk the Earth and believe that he is a paragon of virtue and not prone to Original Sin, Chesterton deftly disables those arguments through an examination of history and the common state of man. While man is capable of doing great good, man’s natural bent is towards the unholy and the sinful. Understanding the depths of man’s condition is not something we like to do, but it is something man must do if he is to truly understand the depth of the Gospel.