3rd–4th centuries

Tertullian and Latin Anthropology: Traducianism, Inherited Sin and Infant Baptism

Tertullian's Stoic worldview led him to regard the soul as a bodily entity derived from the souls of the parents, as the body from bodies; on this traducianism rests his claim that sin is passed from parents to children: "the inheritance of the soul is the inheritance of sin". According to González (HCT), it was largely under Tertullian's influence that this understanding of original sin became widespread in the West. Berkhof traces the gradual emergence of the Western doctrine in the 3rd–4th centuries: Cyprian leaned toward original sinfulness, Ambrose and Hilary clearly taught that all sinned in Adam but retained synergism. Pelikan shows that the practice of infant baptism became a premise for the doctrine of original sin: Cyprian was the first to link it clearly with the "contagion of the ancient death".