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 Pity
Pelagius! Augustinian and Calvinistic doctrine have so defamed
him that even the Encyclopaedia Britannica sees him as negating
Christianity. Read carefully this quote from Encycl. Brit.,
1953; Vol. 17, pp.447-448, and do some thinking for yourself.“
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Pelagius
(c. 360 - c. 420), early British theologian.... Coming to Rome
in the beginning of the 5th. century he found a scandalously low
tone of morality prevalent. But his remonstrances were met by
the plea of human weakness. To remove this plea by exhibiting
the actual powers of human nature became his first object. It
seemed to him that the Augustinian doctrine of total depravity
and of the consequent bondage of the will both cut the sinew of
all human effort and threw upon God the blame which really
belonged to man. His favorite maxim was, “If l ought, I can.”
Judging from the general style of his writings, his religious
development had been equable and peaceful, not marked by the
prolonged mental conflict, or the abrupt transition which
characterized the experience of his great opponent. (Augustine,
rt) With no great penetration he saw very clearly the thing
before him, and many of his practical counsels are marked by
sagacity, and are expressed with the succinctness of a proverb…
The
first principle of Pelagianism is a theory which affirms the
freedom of the will, in the sense that in each volition and at
each moment of life, no matter what the previous career of the
individual has been, the will is in
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equipoise, able to choose good or
evil. We are born characterless, and with no bias towards
good or evil. It follows that we are uninjured by the sin of
Adam, save in so far as the evil example of our predecessors
misleads and influences us. There is, in fact, no such thing as
original sin, sin being a thing of will and not of nature; for
if it could be of nature our sin would be chargeable on God the
Creator. This will, being the natural endowment of man, is found
in the heathen as well as in the Christian, and the heathen may
therefore perfectly keep such law as they know.
But,
if all men have this natural ability to do and to be all that
required for perfect righteousness what becomes of grace, of the
aid of, the Holy Spirit, and, in a word, of Christianity?
Pelagius appears to have confused the denial of original sin
(in the sense of inherited guilt with the denial of
inherited nature or disposition of any kind. Hence he vacillates
considerably in his use of the word “grace.” In his most
careful statements he appears to allow to grace everything but
the initial determining movement towards salvation. He ascribed
to the unassisted human will, power to accept and use the
proffered salvation of Christ. It was at this point his
departure from the Catholic creed could be made apparent:
Pelagius maintains, expressly and by implication, that it is the
human will which takes the initiative; while the Church
maintains that it is the divine will that takes the initiative
by renewing and enabling the human will to accept and use the
aid of grace offered.”
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