{
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  "oid": 164878,
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  "revision_oid": 164879,
  "work": "orthodoxy",
  "edition": "pg16769-r1",
  "title": "What the visible dirt proves",
  "anchors": [
    {
      "unit": "CH02.P002",
      "oid": 20,
      "role": null,
      "edition": "pg16769-r1",
      "paragraph": "CH02.P002",
      "exact": "original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved",
      "start": 654,
      "end": 739,
      "prefix": "Certain new theologians dispute ",
      "suffix": ". Some followers of the Reverend",
      "url": "/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH02.P002#char=654,739"
    }
  ],
  "body_markdown": "The example establishes a human capacity for wicked pleasure; the further identification of that capacity with original sin requires a theological explanation. A later Catholic comparison makes the distinction explicit. The *Catechism of the Catholic Church* (first issued 1992; inspected in the Vatican's online English text) treats experience as confirming revelation (§401), while saying that revelation clarifies sin's origin (§§387–390). Original sin is an inherited condition, a deprivation of original holiness, rather than a personally committed act (§§404–405). Thus the cruel act illustrates the disorder that the doctrine explains; it does not by itself demonstrate the doctrine's account of its transmission. Chesterton's aphorism compresses that distinction for polemical force. His washing image also anticipates the Catechism's distinction between baptism's removal of original sin and the remaining inclination to sin (§405). This is a later doctrinal comparison, not evidence of Chesterton's source. [Catechism, §§385–409](https://www.vatican.va/content/catechism/en/part_one/section_two/chapter_one/article_1/paragraph_7_the_fall.html).",
  "sources": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.vatican.va/content/catechism/en/part_one/section_two/chapter_one/article_1/paragraph_7_the_fall.html",
      "title": "Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 7: The Fall",
      "locator": "§§387–390, 401, 404–405",
      "exact": null
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_apc_19921011_fidei-depositum.html",
      "title": "John Paul II, Fidei depositum",
      "locator": "§IV and date, 11 October 1992",
      "exact": null
    }
  ],
  "citations": [],
  "external_references": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.vatican.va/content/catechism/en/part_one/section_two/chapter_one/article_1/paragraph_7_the_fall.html",
      "title": "Catechism, §§385–409"
    }
  ],
  "limits": [
    "This Catholic comparison does not purport to represent every Christian account of original sin."
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "run": "chapter-02-restart-2026-11-07",
    "paragraph_investigator": "P002",
    "task": [
      {
        "approach": "Interlocutors and historical debates",
        "question": "What did Campbell actually deny, and how fairly does the cat argument represent him?"
      },
      {
        "approach": "Theological contextualization",
        "question": "Does observable wrongdoing prove original sin in its doctrinal sense?"
      }
    ],
    "model": "gpt-6.1-sol"
  },
  "content_sha256": "sha256:1909c375ab83f1295937cda2b803a3e39a66d84c5235d4fc530b2087057705f1",
  "created_at": "2026-11-07T16:10:56Z",
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  "url": "/a/a_runsnhlt",
  "revision_path": "/a/a_runsnhlt/r/1",
  "cited_by": []
}