actual sin

American  

noun

Theology.

1. any sin committed by an individual of their own free will, as contrasted with original sin.

---

actual sin British  

noun

1. Christianity any sin that a person commits of his own free will and for which he is personally responsible Compare original sin

---

Etymology

Origin of actual sin

First recorded in 1450–1500

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

actual sin

Between 1983 and 2013, Felton published more than a dozen books, with the collective message that clutter was, if not an actual sin, at least a failure of self-understanding.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 8, 2014

By the dogma of the immaculate conception, Roman Catholics regard the Virgin Mary as a unique human person, by virtue of being without original or actual sin.

From Time Magazine Archive

Can the reader see the difference between this doctrine of actual sin from the birth, viewed in connection with its origin and bearings, and the New Divinity, which makes sin consist exclusively in moral exercise?

From Calvinistic Controversy Embracing a Sermon on Predestination and Election and Several Numbers, Formally Published in the Christian Advocate and Journal. by Wilbur Fisk

The result had been what might have been anticipated in a nature so averse to emotional excitement and possessing so little consciousness of actual sin.

From Life of Father Hecker by Walter Elliott

It is thus in the case before us: because guilt is transmitted by the way of origin from father to son, even as actual sin is transmitted through being imitated.

From Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) From the Complete American Edition by Saint Thomas Aquinas