Humans in civilizations know they are depraved.  They are always trying to turn back, to recapture the Lebenswelt in which we evolved, by formulating systems that will allow us to “Be Born Again”.  These formulations offer the promise of a return to a world where we all belong, where we all believe, where uncertainty and risk is shared by all, where each gets according to her needs, where each gives according to her abilities, where each person knows what to do and why she is here, where everyone’s voice has importance, where differences are perceived as commonalities, and so on and so on.

Luther’s descriptions of Original Sin, to me, amazingly capture the “sensibilities” of modern ideologues.  Some of these ideologues did not grasp for sovereign power, forming communities that were separatist and later, trapped in the time in which they were formed, like the Amish and the Hippies.  Some of these ideologues grasped for sovereign power, in order to facilitate the Baptism – the Baptism of Blood – of new social orders.

The Modern Era invented new ways of talking.  As a result, almost all cultures and civilizations have been Born Again, either by withdrawal or by blood.   In this way, Modernism itself re-enacts this weird parallel between the transition to speech-alone talk and the concept of Original Sin.

Luther’s definitions even capture the topsy-turvy character of Modernity.   For example, the situation of “acts of unbelief” has mutated.  In Progressivism, the phrase “the Constitution is a Dead Letter”, is “an act of unbelief” in a symbolic framework where “the Constitution is a Living Document”.

Various Modernisms detached Luther’s variation of Original Sin from its moorings in Christianity and, in doing so, literally brought his definitions to life.  All aspects of his formalism have been re-interpreted in the vain attempt to return to the Source.

Luther’s variation on Original Sin was:

Need to be Born Again(acts of unbelief(flawed faculties “of nature”)

It is almost as if Luther’s voice was the voice of Eve as depicted in An Archaeology of the Fall.