There is indeed a consensus in Greek patristic and Byzantine traditions in identifying the inheritance of the Fall as an inheritance essentially of mortality rather than of sinfulness, sinfulness being merely a consequence of mortality. The idea appears in Chrysostom, who specifically denies the imputation of sin to the descendants of Adam; We find this also in other subsequent Fathers, such as the eleventh-century commentator Theophylact of Ohrida; and later Byzantine authors, especially Gregory Palamas. But there are not the only Fathers who have presented a different idea about the “fall” of Adam. The always-more-sophisticated Maximus the Confessor, when he speaks of the consequences of the sin of Adam, identifies them mainly with the mind’s submission to the flesh. Sin remains for Maximus a personal act and inherited guilt is impossible. For him, as for the others, “the wrong choice made by Adam brought in passion, corruption and mortality, but not inherited guilt.

The contrast with Western tradition on this point is brought into sharp focus when Eastern authors discuss the meaning of baptism. Augustine’s arguments in favor of infant baptism were taken from the text of the creeds (baptism for “the remission of sins”) and from his understanding of Romans 5:12 (you might want to look this up). Children, according to Augustine, are born sinful, not because they have sinned personally, but because they have sinned “in Adam”; their baptism is therefore also a baptism “for the remission of sins.” At the same time, an Eastern contemporary of Augustine’s, Theodoret of Cyrus, flatly denies that the creedal formula “for the remission of sins” is applicable to infant baptism. For Theodoret, in fact, the “remission of sins” is only a side effect of baptism, fully real in cases of adult baptism, which was the norm, of course, in the early Church and which indeed “remits sins.” But the principal meaning of baptism is wider and more positive: “If the only meaning of baptism were the remission of sins,” writes Theodoret, “why would we baptize the newborn children who have not yet tasted of sin? But the mystery of baptism is not limited to this; it is a promise of greater and more perfect gifts. In it are the promises of future delights; it is a type of the future resurrection, a communion with the master’s passion, a participation in His resurrection, a mantle of salvation, a tunic of gladness, a garment of light, or, rather, it is light itself.”

First and foremost, in my mind, it is the initiation into a way of thinking and behaving – into the Jesus Way of Living. This is why we ask Godparents to be people of faith so that they might help their children grow in the faith. This is also why we ask parents to be church-goers if they want their children baptized.