felix culpa

Definitions

1. A series of miserable events that will eventually lead to a happier outcome.
   literary
2. The Biblical story of the fall of Adam and Eve, the original sin, seen as fortunate (fēlīx), because it led to Christian redemption and the eventual hope of Heaven.

Examples

“What happens, though, if you, the filmmaker, can't get⟳ the malevolence to work⟳? That's where Jaws had its happy misfortune, its felix culpa. When the mechanical sharks failed to work⟳[…][Steven] Spielberg and his cast⟳ had nothing to do but hole up evening after evening in a Martha's Vineyard house and spitball about the script, story and characters.”

“I have⟳ shown that among older writers the fall⟳ of Adam was termed felix culpa, a fortunate sin, because it had been expiated with immense benefit by the incarnation of the Son of God: for he gave to the universe something more noble than anything there would otherwise have⟳ been amongst created beings.”

CEFR level