Why did Augustine believe in original sin?
Martin Luther is associated with the doctrine of ‘justification by faith alone.’ What did he mean by this? And what were the alternatives he rejected? There are many ways of understanding Luther’s theological ‘breakthrough’ which are needed in order to explain both Luther in context and western theological stress over eastern stresses. The first and most often-presented way of understanding Luther’s ‘justification by faith alone’ stress is by placing Luther against the medieval Catholic world, and in particular against a scholastic mis-stress associated with theologians such as Gabriel Biel and Pierre d’Ailly representing the via moderna school. Other more known figures such as Luther’s Catholic arch-opponent, John Eck, have given the impression that the theological problems of the via moderna were the only and definitive statement of Roman Catholic theology. Recent scholarship has challenged this bias and assumption, showing a vibrant theological tradition akin to Luther’s ‘breakthrou
