Total depravity

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Total depravity is a term that is used to summarize what many Christian theologians have traditionally taught about the spiritual condition of sinful and fallen man. The term does not mean that an individual necessarily commits all the sin he is incapable of, but merely that man's core nature (mind, will, emotions) have been corrupted by sin and is incapable of attaining righteousness and salvation. Although the doctrine of "total depravity"/"depravity of man" is commonly associated with Calvinism it is not exclusively a Calvinist doctrine. For example, John Wesley the founder of Methodism, was not a Calvinist and he had extremely similar notions concerning the depravity of man as John Calvin. [1]