[1] As a theological concept, felix culpa is a way of understanding the Fall as having positive outcomes, such as the redemption of mankind through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
[4] The earliest known use of the term appears in the Catholic Paschal Vigil Mass Exsultet: O felix culpa quae talem et tantum meruit habere redemptorem, "O happy fault that earned for us so great, so glorious a Redeemer.
"[5] In the 4th century, Saint Ambrose also speaks of the fortunate ruin of Adam in the Garden of Eden in that his sin brought more good to humanity than if he had stayed perfectly innocent.
The theological concept is one of the underlying themes of Cameron Reed's science fiction novel, The Fortunate Fall; the novel's title derives explicitly from the Latin phrase.
It is also the theme of the fifteenth-century English text Adam lay ybounden, of unknown authorship, and it is used in various guises, such as "Foenix culprit", "Poor Felix Culapert!"