Original Sin According to Calvin: Mind, Will, and the Whole Soul

“Original sin, therefore, seems to be a hereditary depravity and corruption of our nature, diffused into all parts of the soul, which first makes us liable to God’s wrath, then also brings forth in us those works which Scripture calls ‘works of the flesh.’” — Institutes, 2.1.8

“For our nature is not merely unvirtuous and empty of all good, but it is so fertile and productive of every kind of evil that it cannot be idle. Those who have defined original sin as the lack of original righteousness… have not expressed its power and energy. For our nature is not only destitute of all good, but is so fertile and fruitful of every evil that it cannot be inactive.” — Institutes, 2.1.8

“The human mind has so completely strayed from God’s righteousness that it conceives, desires, and undertakes only that which is impious, perverted, foul, impure, and infamous. The heart is so steeped in the poison of sin that it can breathe out nothing but a corrupt stench.” — Institutes, 2.5.19

“We are not clothed with a body of flesh, but our soul is entirely infected with sin. Therefore, the will of man is so bound by the slavery of sin that it cannot move, much less apply itself, to anything good.” — Institutes, 2.3.5 “Man is said to have free will, not because he has a free choice between good and evil, but because he acts voluntarily, and not by compulsion. This is perfectly true: but why should so small a matter be dignified with so proud a title? An admirable freedom indeed!—where man is not forced to serve sin, but is a voluntary slave, his will being bound by the fetters of sin.” — Institutes, 2.2.7

“Whatever is in man, from the understanding to the will, from the soul even to the flesh, has been defiled and crammed with this concupiscence; or, to put it more briefly, the whole man is in himself nothing but concupiscence.” — Institutes, 2.1.8