Sunday!  Sunday!  Sunday!  Augustine and Pelagius!

        One of the greatest debates in the course of the history of the Church has been over how much of a role our own efforts play in determining our salvation.  Although basic Christian teachings have supported that Christ is essential in our ultimate salvation, there has not always been a consensus about the extent and role that he plays, and how much we have the ability to work out salvation on our own.   Throughout history there have been various responses to this debate given along a broad spectrum of free-will and total grace.  Two early leaders of the church who debated quite fiercely over this topic helped to frame the discussion for later thinkers, and in doing so helped tremendously in developing our own understanding of the work of Christ in the life of believers.  Pelagius responded to the question by saying that we have the ability to choose God and have a major role to play in our own salvation.  Augustine, on the other hand, felt that our own efforts were meaningless, and that only by grace can we find salvation, and take part in what God is doing in our lives.  In this brief essay I hope to lay out the thought of these great leaders, showing how each understands salvation and the Christian life, and in doing so showing how each understands the work of Christ in the life of the believer.  Each sought holiness, and the fullness of the Christian life, but each saw a different way that this might be achieved. 

            The history of Pelagius is somewhat cloudy, with the general consensus being that he was a British monk who had traveled to Rome.  In Rome he quickly became disgusted with the lax and even decrepit lifestyle that was being represented in what was even then being recognized as the capital of Christianity.  This awareness urged him to respond with a call for purity and a call that Christians are able and indeed intended to take part in salvation and growth in Christ through a continual changing of practice and attitude. [1]   The key to this in Pelagius is his understanding of human nature as being capable of truly doing good, rather than being inherently disposed towards evil.  Using the example of those in the Old Testament who sought God and goodness prior to the coming of Christ and even prior to the giving of the law, he seeks to show that “our souls possess what might be called a sort of natural integrity which presides in the depths of the soul and passes judgments of good and evil.” [2]

            Human nature, according to Pelagius, is not inescapably bent towards evil, but rather we are endowed with the capability at every step to turn away from evil, and choose the good. [3]   Because we have been created in the image of God, and declared by him to be good, we have an inherent ability to understand and pursue that which is of God, namely the good. [4]   However, we are not creatures who were created to mindlessly follow a specific path.  Instead, by giving us the ability to choose evil over good, God has given us the choice to accept or reject him, giving us the “the gift of good will and the power of free choice.” [5]  That way, our decisions truly are our own, leading us by our own wills down the path of life or destruction, and thus making our choices truly our own and truly responsible for the results. [6]

            Our tendency towards sin is not, as some would suggest, an inescapable part of our nature, but rather a developed habit that is so ingrained in our thought and practice by years of choice that we have a difficult time distinguishing the fact that we can choose otherwise. [7]   Because we have spent years in developing our various vices, beginning when we were very young, we have been corrupted by our own practice, becoming addicted in fact to wrongdoing. [8]   The giving of the Law was intended as a correction to this “corrosion”, repeatedly showing us correction and cleaning away the years of vice and sin that had covered our inherent goodness. [9]   Thus, the years of practice and choices that have led to a corruption of our souls necessitate a renewed lifestyle of devotion to holiness to continually correct and adjust ourselves back towards a disposition of righteousness. 

            For Pelagius, Christ is an example of this disposition and his work is an important beginning to a process of restoration. [10]   Although people before the Law and Christ were able to live righteous lives, because of the work and life of Christ we can be better and this work towards goodness can be easier.  Just as the Law was like “a file to polish nature” [11] , so too does Christ cleanse us and purge us of our previous sins.  When we take hold of the grace that he offers, we are cleansed of our prior corruption, and thus better able to take hold of that righteousness which the life of Christ shows to us as an example. [12]   Thus given this cleansing and example, we are spurred to devote ourselves to a continual renewal of thought and practice by the taking on of good customs and pursuit of the inherent goodness which the human soul is capable. [13]

            Augustine’s life is much more known and understood than that of Pelagius.  We have been blessed with a writing of wonderful honesty and openness which shows not only the historical incidents of his life, but also reveals that which was hidden in his own mind.  Because Augustine’s Confessions is not necessarily a theological treatise on the nature of salvation and the work of Christ, we do not have perfectly clear and laid out doctrines of his own views as we do with Pelagius.  However, by reading through his examination of his own soul’s journey we can extrapolate his theological assumptions and determine how his thought greatly diverges from the thought of Pelagius.  Rather than holding to a very positive view of the human soul, Augustine has an understanding that the soul naturally veers towards evil, and that grace is essential not only in restoring the luster of the soul, but in even re-directing it towards a pursuit of goodness to begin with. 

            For Augustine “the impulses of nature and the impulses of the Spirit are at war with one another.” [14]   For although the Spirit leads one towards desiring happiness and wholeness, the will is not strong enough to overcome the natural tendencies of humanity. [15]   This was a struggle for Augustine during his formative years.  He sought after truth, with a vague tugging at him to despise that what was evil, but without understanding how to find the strength to overcome the evil in his own life. [16]   This was especially true for Augustine in how he dealt with his sexual temptations, believing both that it was within man’s own power to overcome and that he himself was not strong enough to accomplish this. [17] This battle over what he increasingly knew and what he increasingly knew he could not do caused great havoc within his soul.

            This havoc was the grace of God working in him, before he would accept the truth of Christ for himself, bringing a great dissatisfaction for the things of this world and goading him towards a continual pursuit of truth, which would eventually lead him into a life with Christ. [18]   He was spurred to look inward to his own soul by the grace of God, and was continually aided in this journey by this same grace. [19]   In his reading of Saint Paul, Augustine realizes that “by the gift of grace” a person “is not only shown how to see you, who are always the same, but is also given the strength to hold you.” [20]   And for the one who is far from God, grace enables that person to come closer to him so that God can be seen and grasped hold of. [21]   This search which is enabled by grace led Augustine to a realization that in order to find the strength to truly walk with God, he would have to go beyond his own faulty capabilities.

            At one time, Augustine saw Jesus as simply a man of extraordinary wisdom and in whom humanity had reached the highest point of excellence. [22]   Yet as he searched, aided by grace, he began to understand that Christ was indeed more than an example, but in fact he was the mediator between God and humanity that Augustine needed. [23]   By taking on human flesh the Divine in Christ raises up those who turn to him and allows them to be raised up to the goodness for which they were intended. [24]   Christ forgives past sins, covering them over with his righteousness and grace, allowing a person to find the happiness that can only come in a vital relationship with the Divine, changing the life of the person through faith. [25]

            It is only after this extraordinary change which is wrought by faith that a person can truly be enabled towards pursuing goodness. [26]   It is only by the mercy of God that a person is able to follow his commands, yet during this present life even those who are saved are not fully filled with the grace that enables perfection. [27]   Thus Christians still continue to struggle, and continue to rely on the mercy and grace of God to lead and strengthen the believer into ever greater maturity and fullness of life, leading Augustine to exclaim, “There can be no hope for me except in your great mercy.  Give me the grace to do as you command, and command me to do what you will!” [28]   This is his cry throughout his writing, understanding that his own will is incapable of pursuing or accomplishing goodness if the will and grace of God is not enabling him.  Through the mediation and sacrifice of Christ humanity has been given the ability and strength to pursue goodness, and will be eventually cured of the corruption that is inherent to human nature. [29]

            Pelagius would also hold to the position that Christ has cleansed us, but would argue that our search for God to begin with has to do with an inherent leaning towards goodness in our own life, and that this leaning towards goodness is rewarded by God.  It is because we have been made with a free will that we are responsible for the results of our decisions. [30]   Having made us capable of doing good and doing evil, God places before us a decision whether or not to pursue him, and understands that we have the ability to follow through with our choice.  By saying that it is outside of what he has already given us to pursue goodness we are accusing God of ignorance, that “he does not understand what he made and does not realize what he commands.” [31]   Pelagius decries the idea that humanity is first commanded to do that which is impossible and then condemned for not achieving it.  In response to Augustine he would point out the continued leanings that Augustine had towards goodness and his repulsion towards evil, even though he did not always act on these leanings. The process that Augustine took towards a fuller adjustment of life would be expected, as time is needed to fix that which time has wrought, but there is still the inherent goodness of the soul that prompted the process, and which continued to lead Augustine in pursuing practices which would lead to greater holiness. [32]   By arguing this way, Pelagius is greatly supporting and encouraging continued efforts as opposed to laxity, and understands a full participation with the work of Christ by our own actions and thoughts.

            Augustine would vehemently argue against Pelagius that while there is a vestige of goodness within our spirit, our wills have been corrupted and no longer have the strength or ability to pursue goodness apart from the grace of God and the work of Christ. [33]   That we can do good at all is the grace of God first leading us towards Christ, and than enabling us to pursue the life that Christ works in us.  There is  a participation with the work of Christ, but the strength and ability to participate comes from grace alone.   Because the human will continues to veer toward destruction we are continually in need of this grace for our very survival and salvation.  The goodness that Pelagius claims is inherent to his own soul is actually the grace of God working in him.  Thus he is guilty of the most grievous sin of claiming as his own that which is of God.    Although supporting that we make an effort, Augustine is careful to properly attribute the source of our strength, and to offer the proper praise for the work that Christ has done in us, rather than be proud of the work we have done for Christ.

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[1] See P-51ff.

[2] P-44;   His Old Testament examples include Abel, Abraham, Joseph, and Job.

[3] P-42.

[4] P-41.

[5] P-42.

[6] ibid.

[7] P-49ff.

[8] P-50.

[9] ibid.

[10] ibid.

[11] ibid.

[12] ibid.

[13] P-51ff;  See also P-40ff.

[14] A-229

[15] ibid.

[16] See A-126ff.

[17] A-128. 

[18] A-144.

[19] A-146.

[20] A-155.

[21] ibid.

[22] A-153.

[23] A-152.

[24] ibid.

[25] A-208.

[26] A-234.

[27] A-232.

[28] A-233.

[29] A-251ff.

[30] see P-48ff.

[31] P-53.

[32] P-50.

[33] A-229.