Heavenly sin

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Heavenly sin ( Latin peccatum clamans ) is a term from the moral theological and catechetical tradition of Christian theology .

Concept history

From the formulation of the Old Testament that the blood of the brother Abel who was slain by Cain "cries to heaven", Gen 4,10  EU , the dogmatics or moral theology derived the term peccatum clamans . Four or five peccata clamantia were counted and the following verses were formed:

"Clamitat ad caelum vox sanguinis [according to Gen 4.10  VUL ] et Sodomorum [according to Gen 18.20  VUL ],
vox oppressorum [according to Ex 3.7  VUL ], merces [que] retenta [or remorata] laborum [according to Jak 5 , 4  VUL ].
It cries out to heaven the voice of the blood and the sodomer,
the voice of the oppressed [and] of the withheld [delayed] wages of labor [s]. "

One variant takes a motif from Ex 22.23  VUL :

"Clamitat ad caelum vox sanguinis et Sodomorum,
vox oppressorum, viduae , pretium famulorum.
It cries out to heaven the voice of the blood and the sodomer,
the voice of the oppressed, the widow, the servant's wages. "

The 1997 Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) lists five such sins . So scream to heaven:

  • the blood shed on brother Abel during the murder of Cain (reference: Gen 4.10  EU ),
  • the sin of the Sodomites in the biblical story of the wrongdoing and punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah (reference: Gen 18.20  EU ; 19.13 EU , but not Gen 19.5  EU ),
  • the complaints of the Israelite people oppressed in Egypt (reference: Ex 3.7-10  EU ),
  • the lawsuits of strangers, widows and orphans (reference: Ex 22.20–22  EU ) and
  • wages withheld from workers (reference: Dtn 24.14–15  EU ; Jak 5.4  EU ; in relation to the situation at the time, the biblical texts refer to day laborers , the KKK speaks more generally of workers).

The expression “something stinks in the sky” also has its roots here.

The sins of Sodom and Gomorrah are often associated with homosexuality among men. This view has been controversial since the 1980s and is no longer shared by liberal theologians. According to Scharbert, it is more about violence and the forcing of sexual satisfaction on defenseless people such as animals, boys, weaker men and angels.

Less ambiguous than the traditional expression “sins crying out to heaven” is the phrase “social sins that cry out to heaven” used by Pope John Paul II in his Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America . By this he means conditions that “create violence and destroy peace and harmony” and specifically mentions “drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption in all areas, the horrors of violence, armament, racial discrimination, and social inequality Layers and the irrational destruction of nature. "

Delimitations

Other catalogs of sins besides the heavenly sins are lists of the main or root sins , the sins against the Holy Spirit and the sins of others . Mortal sins and venial sins are distinguished based on the gravity of a sin .

literature

  • Karl Golser: Social sins that cry out to heaven. A forgotten, but apparently up-to-date category again. In: Alberto Bondolfi , Hans J. Münk: Theological Ethics Today. Answers for a humane future - Hans Halter on his 60th birthday NZN-Verlag, Zurich 1999, ISBN 978-3-85827-131-0 , pp. 173-188 ( online ).
  • Karl Hörmann : Art. Sünde , in: Lexikon der Christian Moral 1976, Sp. 1529–1544.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. for example Introductorium artis grammaticae, Gent 1554, p. 37, online ; Johannes Gropper : Capita institutionis ad pietatem , Cologne 1553, p. 121, online ; Karl August von Hase : Hutterus redivivus , Leipzig 11. A. 1868, 177, online ; August Hahn : Textbook of Christian Faith , Leipzig 1828, 417, online ; Julius August Ludwig Wegscheider : Institutiones theologiae Christianae dogmaticae , Halle 1829, 888, with reference to the dogmatic standard textbooks by Gerhard, Reinhard and Knapp, online .
  2. ↑ KKK, Part 3, Section 1, Chapter 1, Article 8, Paragraph 5, 1867
  3. ↑ See entry in the vocabulary project of the University of Graz; accessed December 4, 2018.
  4. ↑ Josef Scharbert: Genesis (The New Real Bible, New Testament 17/19) , Würzburg 1985, p. 154; cited by Doris Maria Märzinger: The Disappearance of Outrageous Sins in European Church Practice , Vienna 1989, diploma thesis at the Catholic-Theological Faculty Vienna under the direction of Paul Zulehner, p. 14; quoted in Golser: Social Sins That Scream to Heaven , p. 2 ( online ; accessed December 4, 2018).
  5. ^ Ecclesia in America , No. 56.
  6. ↑ KKK 1866