Kierkegaard On Hereditary Sin And Its Ethical Impact

The hereditary sin is meanwhile an ethical issue.Given that it could be inherited in the same way as a heritage,we would have to face the responsibility of a sin beyond one’s power of will.Such a responsibility contradicts the ethical presupposition that the sin is possible only when the freedom of will is secured.Under the Christian background of original sin,the ethical freedom especially tends to be questioned.Kierkegaard,on the one hand,disintegrates the traditional concept of hereditary sin,considering the sin instead of the sinfulness as the first thing,and asserts that it can only be determined by one’s own behavior.On the other hand,he takes the anxiety in one’s consciousness in the place of hereditary sin,however conserving some effects of the latter.Therein the social and historical effects have been acknowledged,except to be taken as essential.He claims the sin to be a qualitative leap,which can neither be decided by external nor internal incentives.Therefore,it is beyond the reach of reason and can only be described as freedom.Besides,the sin is revealed by God.Taking God as the criterion,Kierkegaard establishes the concept of ethical person to advance the actuality of ethics to a person’s existential fact of confronting the God,which of course differs to Kant’s self-legalism.