Felix Salvatio v. Felix Culpa

A brief disputation against the philosophy of Felix Culpa
R. A. Snider for the Body of Christ

The philosophy of Felix Culpa (Happy Fault) states, in essence, that the Fall of Man  - that ruinous rebellion of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden  - was ultimately joyous because it set in motion the plan of redemption that gained for the Believer and the whole human race far more than was lost in the Fall.

While this philosophy accurately recognizes the ultimate state of the Believer as more blessed than the state of Man in his innocence before the Fall, the philosophy itself should be rejected on the basis of its evident disregard for the ultimate state of the Unbeliever.

This state — that of eternal separation from God and of everlasting torment in a sea of fire — is so horrifying to the imagination when considered at length that it should be impossible for anyone capable of human sympathy to count the cause of this state as anything approaching “happy”, as “felix” in the Latin declares.

When quantified (if it can be), the cost of sin to the human race — the sum total of misery and suffering, heartbreak and loss that has plagued humanity throughout time, and the damnation that has claimed uncounted numbers of souls since the Fall — is of such a magnitude as to break the heart of anyone who dares contemplate it.

While it is true, however straight or hard, that the judgment of the wicked comes upon them, whether in this life or after it, entirely as a result of their own decisions and actions, whether done in the darkness of ignorance, or in the broad daylight of full and comprehending knowledge of God’s expectations, the wicked, no matter how wicked, are still beloved of God.

It is this love that has stayed the hand of God from destroying the human race, and moved Him to send His Son to redeem it instead.

Considering this realistic view of the human condition, of the fault that caused it, and of the incalculable tragedy of even a single soul lost, let the Believer reject this notion of Felix Culpa and embrace rather Felix Salvatio, for it is the ultimate state of the Believer alone that is better and greater than the state of Man in his original innocence; it is not the fault that is happy, but our salvation and deliverance from it.

Amen.