Infinite Sin et al

Many Orthodox have criticized St. Anselm for many things, but there are two things I have trouble with. The judicial concept overall to me is not necessarily a troubling point as many Orthodox make it, but I find two things that are troubling in St. Anselm's beliefs:

1. Infinite Sin
2. "Robbing" God's Glory

Now, doing a little search on the Catholic Catechism, I found nothing in it that contains such beliefs that I have outlined above. Also, I understand that recently the Catholic Church has rejected the Augustinian belief of "limbo." Is it possible that there are Catholic theologians that may reject some aspects of St. Anselm's belief as I have outlined?

But if "Infinite Sin" is strongly upheld, what are the arguments for it? What of the writings of the ancient fathers support it, or even allude to it? Have I missed something in the Catechism, or in the Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church? Or has this been a controversy in the Catholic Church as well?

Thank you.

Mina

In a nutshell, what Adam did was a direct sin against God, disobeying Him. Therefore, since the offense is against God, it's an infinite offense, which incurs an infinite debt which deserves infinite punishment, but to be saved would require an infinite payment, i.e. Christ.

Original Sin is infinite in that manner. This concept, I personally find troubling, but I wonder since I can't find it as an official Catholic dogma, if it's also troubling to Catholics as well, unless I missed something in my search that makes it clearly a dogma in the Catholic Church, and if it is held as a dogma, what is the rationale?

Thank you.

God bless.

Dear Davidnic,

Thank you I do remember. Indeed, the Coptic Church never forgets the agreement made with HH Pope Paul IV

The gravity of the offense is measured against the dignity of the offended.

Click to expand...

How has St. Thomas Aquinas defended this? I always thought, that the offense is measured against the dignity by the amount of damage made and furthermore, it's impossible to damage God, and that's I think the core of the problem.

Now, if it was a "countable" infinity like WarriorAngel said, I would agree, but I don't think that's what was implied, unless I'm wrong.

Dear QuantaCura,

The link you gave me was pretty good actually. Thank you! What's interesting is while it said that Christ's "value" was of infinite value, it never mentioned anything about sin being "infinite," which I find quite interesting, even when talking about St. Anselm. In fact, the Catholic Encyclopedia does say that St. Anselm may have been mistaken by making the Incarnation something necessary for God to do, which in this case shows that St. Thomas Aquinas, Abelard, and St. Bernard agreed that there's nothing that God lost or lacking in God.

This I find pleasing. I guess my question should be did St. Anselm really believe in an "infinite sin"?

Thank you.

God bless.

Mina