Calvinist writers summarize Total Depravity in different ways. Some definitions say little more than that every person is a sinner, guilty before God. Every Christian affirms that. Others go further and say that fallen people cannot respond to the gospel at all until God first changes them. Below are several definitions from Calvinist sources, in their own words.

In Their Own Words

• As a result of Adam’s fall, the entire human race is affected; all humanity is dead in trespasses and sins. Man is unable to save himself (GotQuestions.org)
• All men are totally depraved, dead in sin, as a result of wickedness that entered the world through the sin of Adam. Man is totally depraved both in his nature and in his activities. This death is so absolute that man, of himself, is completely incapable of doing any good and inclined toward all evil. This implies that the will of man is not free, but is in bondage to the power of sin. (Reformed Free Publishing Association)
• When we speak of total depravity, we speak of the Biblical doctrine that the whole race is under the curse of sin, and that we are all guilty before a perfect and holy God. (Baptist Bible Hour)
• Total depravity means that every sinner, including you and me, is destitute or without that love to God which constitutes the fundamental and all-inclusive demand of God's law. (Monergism.com)
• [Total Depravity] renders humans blind to the gospel (Desiring God)

Universal Guilt or Inability?

The first, third, and fourth definitions describe sin, guilt, and the absence of love for God. Non-Calvinists affirm all of this: "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), and no one can earn their way back. The second and fifth definitions add something more. They say the sinner's will "is not free, but is in bondage," that he is "completely incapable of doing any good," and that depravity "renders humans blind to the gospel." That added claim of inability is the part of the doctrine this site disputes, because it leads directly to the view that regeneration precedes faith.

A short definition can sound like either claim, so it is worth asking which one a writer means. Scripture clearly teaches universal guilt. What we question is whether it teaches that sinners cannot believe the gospel when God calls. Our depravity doesn't make us blind to the gospel; it makes us need it.