Original Sin in Arda

[doug*platypus]

A sub-topic of Mhoram's Inherent Evil? thread. A search on Original Sin didn't turn up a lot of answers, and so I thought it would be good to separate this out and see what everyone's thoughts were.

The following quote is from an excellent post by Bill Ferny on the Eru Letting Melkor Go thread:

When ever the Eru issue pops up, its seems that most want to limit Tolkien’s vision the Christian mythos. This is probably accurate to some degree, as the monotheism in the Silm is most like Tolkien’s own Christian beliefs. Its quite possible that to some degree Tolkien modeled Eru and his cosmology on the Christian mythos. Its pretty much all there, creation from nothing, a fallen angel, and a fallen creation. But I don’t think that Christianity is the only influence at work here, and I think that Tolkien consciously diverged from the Christian mythos in some very notable ways.
What always strikes me is the ambiguity around fallen Middle-Earth. Is Middle-Earth fallen because of Melkor’s fall? This seems to be the direction that Tolkien took. Middle-Earth is stained by the presence of Melkor. It was Melkor’s music that marred Arda to begin with. That, however, is very different from the Christian mythos. In the Christian mythos, Adam’s fall, not Satan’s, corrupts the world. Death, suffering, etc., etc., is brought about by sin, the sin of human beings. For those who reduce Eru and Tolkien’s cosmology to the Christian mythos, this is a huge inconsistency.

There are fundamental differences between the cosmology of Middle-Earth and Christian cosmology (not to mention anthropology as well). No doubt there are certain Christian elements in the Silm; for example, the emergence of evil becomes an opportunity for Eru to show forth his glory. This is very much like the sin of Adam becoming an opportunity for God to show forth his infinite mercy through the cross. However, Tolkien is not CS Lewis. Tolkien was not only a devout Catholic, but from all I’ve seen he was a very knowledgeable one as well. So, I’m forced to conclude that he knowingly diverged from the Christian mythology. Why? I don’t know, but in a way, I’m glad he did.


- Bill Ferny

So, man was sinless until Adam/Eve? Then how about Elves, Dwarves, Men, Ainur in Tolkien's world? Did Melkor commit the original sin? Did Fëanor?? Or was every sentient being brought into Ëa with the capacity for sin?