Wednesday, September 26, 2012

DEBATE BETWEEN AUGUSTINE AND PELAGIUS ON THE ISSUES OF ORIGINAL SIN AND FREE WILL

DEBATE BETWEEN AUGUSTINE AND PELAGIUS ON THE ISSUES OF ORIGINAL SIN AND FREE WILL



INTRODUCTION
Both of the great theologians in the middle of fourth centuries, Augustine and Pelagius, were world-renown not only in the early centuries, but have also effected Christianity today in its theology, especially on original sin and free will. The great theologian, Augustine, for half of his life enjoyed worldly things and with play with girls who loved him. It can be said that he really delighted more in practicing Christian life than in teaching about Jesus and the Holy Scripture. Augustine, however, has become an example and model for many Christians since the middle of his life.
The other great theologian who really loved the Christian life and delighted in following the teachings of Jesus and Holy Scriptures concerning human’ morals is Pelagius. For his enjoyment, there was nothing else than to be Christian and to imitate and follow Jesus in his life. In this research paper, the controversy between Pelagius and Augustine concerning original sin and free-will, will be studied. This research paper will not focus on the theology of Augustine but on Pelagius. The theology of Augustine will be mentioned to show the similarities and differences. The theology of Pelagius regarding original sin and free will will be emphatically studied in this paper. In the first part, the theology of Augustine will be studied briefly. The theology of Pelagius concerning original sin and free-will, will be addressed in the second part. Finally, what we will have research will conclude.

CHAPTER-1
A BRIEF HISTORY OF AUGUSTINE

Aurelius Augustine was born at Tagaste in the province of Numidia, on November 13, 354. It is believed that his father Patricius, a landowner, was not Christian, but was converted to Christianity before his death. His mother, Monica, was a Christian. As mentioned in his confession, he grew up in a poor family. Actually, Augustine really detested going to school because Greek was his particular bugbear.[1] Augustine completed the whole normal course of studies at ages nineteen. He was an excellent in student and he was best in both philosophy and theology. Actually, his educational level was not really higher education.[2]
 
In Augustine’s youth-life, he was very romantic and delighted to love and to be loved. He then set his mind about doing as his friends did, not only for the sheer enjoyment of lying together with a girl, but also for the pleasure of talking about it afterward. He really preferred playing with girls, but his enjoyment was set on the body of the girl who loved him. However, in April 25, 387, he was baptized by Bishop Ambrose.[3] After that he himself committed his whole life to the teaching of the scriptures and started with the beginning verses of Genesis.[4] He became a good example, modest and humble. After having lived 76 years and spent almost 40 years in the ministry, Saint Augustine’s life rested on the cool hand of God on August 28, 430.[5]

AUGUSTINE’S THEOLOGY
Augustine’s theology is contrary to Pelagius’ theology. In summary, Augustine believed that man was created; Man was created in the image of God with freedom and will but all of this was lost in the fall of Adam. In fact, we all have original sin, even new born children. For salvation, divine grace is absolutely needed. Infant baptism is necessary, because all new-born children have original sin which has a divine penalty as the consequence. If an infant dies without baptism, the infant is damned. Original sin is taken away in baptism. It says again the salvation of man is attributed to grace and faith and even faith is work of grace.[6] The Roman Catholic Church and many Christians today agree with Augustine’s theology of original sin and free will.
AUGUSTINE’S THEOLOGY ON ORIGINAL SIN
Augustine based his clear statement of original sin on the first book of the Bible, Genesis 3, but it was Romans 5:12ff which really provided the key inspiration for his theology. [7] In Augustine’s view, the first two humans were the first human sinners, because Adam and Eve freely chose to eat the forbidden fruit. In fact, since then almost all humans have sin. Extremely mentioned all Christians except Jesus are the company of sinners.[8] The starting-point of Augustine’s theology concerning original sin is from infant baptism. New-borns already have sin when the light of the world from the mother’s womb is seen. In his confession and other writings, he illustrated his beliefs concerning children when they enter the world lacking innocence because they were already bound up in Adam’s original sin. His theological point is that humanity is absolutely fallen away God, so God’s grace is absolutely needed. For this reason, it says the custom of infant baptism was the single most powerful rite for defending the doctrine of original sin.[9] Augustine’s theology on original sin is that all people are truly born in sin and both they and their world are shaped by sin. It says that Adam simply chose to sin. Likewise, “each member of the human race except Jesus recapitulates Adam’s choice, affirming his unity with Adam and the race.”[10]

AUGUSTINE’S THEOLOGY ON FREE WILL
 Regarding free will, Augustine emphasized grace more than free will. He defined to Evodius that human free will can become the slave of lust only by his will of the mind. Augustine shows the relationship of human happiness to free will like this: if God makes you to be happy, your happiness will come by necessity; it is not come by the exercise of your will.[11]Augustine wrote about free will in his famous book (City of God 5.9-10):
Our wills have power to do all that God wanted them to do and foresaw they could do. Their power, such as it is, is a real power. What they are to do they themselves will most certainly do, because God foresaw both that they could do it and that they would do and His knowledge cannot be mistaken…we are by no means under compulsion to abandon free choice in favor of divine knowledge, nor need we deny God forbid that God knows the future, as a condition for holding free choice.[12]

In Augustine’s view, God really gave free will to Adam and to the angels. This free will is good, for it comes from God and is one of the characteristics of a truly rational being. It, however, is an intermediate good. The free will can decide to do what is good as well as evil. However, it says wither will is itself the first cause of sin or the first causes it without sin. Here it is mentioned:
“If man is good, and if he would not be able to act rightly except by willing to do so, he ought to have free will because without it he would not be able to act rightly. Because he also sins through having free will, we are not to believe that God gave it to him for that purpose. It is, therefore, a sufficient reason why he ought to have been given it, that without it man could not live aright.”[13]

Augustine spends so much more time on his basic metaphysics concerning free will and devotes relatively little to the problem of free will itself. For Augustine, of course evil is primarily what raises the problem of free will. It is believed that there is no solution for the problem of free will, but in only this way can some skill in handling the metaphysical alternative which faces us be developed.[14]

CHAPTER-2
A  BRIEF HISTORY OF PELAGIUS

Still today, it is confusing where Pelagius was born and grew up. Most scholars have said that Pelagius was born in Britain, the son of Christian parents at about the middle of the fourth century. He received a higher education in the country of his birth and studied law in Rome where he established a friendship with a highly placed lawyer, Coelestius. After baptism, he accepted with full seriousness the responsibilities of the Christian life. Actually he wanted to be nothing else but a Christian and to live according the law which is binding upon all Christians and what Jesus instructed us, the Sermon on the Mount. The outstanding work of Pelagius of his many works is a commentary on all the letters of St. Paul. It is known that the center of his theology is the idea of the omnipresence and righteousness of God, but this concept is less from Holy Scripture. His primary concern was to make all Christians of his day aware of God’s demand for a holy life. His focusing preaching is based on ethics like that of the Sermon on the Mount. It says that if someone claims to be a Christian, he is not merely such in name, but in works, who in all things imitates and follows Christ.[15] Pelagius was well acquainted with Greek. He founded a school of thought that rejected the doctrine of original sin and predestination. He believed in man’s free will and inherent capacity for God. [16] Many scholars generally agreed that Pelagius was very well educated man with a solid knowledge of the Scriptures and an acquaintance with many of the classics. [17] To see how Pelagius loved and admired Christian life, he wrote in his letter:
How can you then be called a Christian, if there is no Christian act in you? Christian is the name for righteousness, goodness, integrity, forbearance, chastity, prudence, humility, kindness, blamelessness, godliness. How can you defend and appropriate that name, when not even a few of these many qualities abide in you? He is a Christian who is one not only in name but in deed, who imitates and follows Christ in everything, who is holy, guiltless, undefiled, unstained, in whose breast malice has no place, in whose breast only godliness and goodness reside, who does not know how to hurt or harm anyone but only how to enemies but rather to do good to his adversaries and pray for his persecutors and enemies, following Christ’s example; for anyone who is ready to hurt and harm someone else lies when he declared that he is a Christian. The Christian is one who is able to make the following claim with justification: I have harmed no man; I have lived righteously with all.[18]
His radical Christian life magnified the natural power of man and the natural power of man that can be self-confident. He really preferred to say how the human being or nature is good, created by God. The moralistic Pelagius’ primary concern was that all people were to live good and decent lives. He wanted them to keep from falling into sinful nature and to live a good life. Assuming that Pelagius died in some regions of Palestine about his ages seventy.[19]
 
THE THEOLOGY OF PELAGIUS
The important argument between Pelagius and Augustine is how is man saved? Their controversy is based on this profound question. Pelagius simply answered that the main elements of conversion was human will and divine grace in the work of salvation. Pelagius’ theology can say: that original sin, inherited from Adam does not belong to all men. Sin is not the fault of nature, but it is purely a matter of will. Each of us is created like Adam by God with the perfect freedom to do good or evil. Since man has lived with sinless is possible and man can save himself by his own good works. It says that infant baptism is useless and meaningless because there is no hereditary or original sin. New-born children are sinless. Pelagius says that salvation is easily possible without the Law of Gospel or by divine grace of Christ’s good example as Adam hurt us by his bad example.[20]

PELAGIUS’ THEOLOGY ON ORIGINAL SIN
Regarding the doctrine of original sin and man’s moral helplessness, Pelagius who had an excellent human nature strongly disagreed that there was too little depending on Christians’ own efforts, but too much on God and the church. His letter to his disciple woman, Demetrias, showed a strong disagreement: “Whenever I have to speak concerning moral instruction and holy living, I am accustomed to point out first the force and quality of human nature and what it is able to accomplish.” [21] Pelagius became the one who disagreed with Augustine’s way, by defending the Christian’s moral instruction and the beautiful human being which could freely choose good. He urged others to do so.[22] Pelagius strongly maintained that everyone created by God are blameless. Pelagius holds that if there is any influence of Adam upon his descendants: it is merely that of a bad example and there is no other direct connection between Adam’s sin and the rest of the human race. Therefore, we are not really sinful, guilty, and condemned; however, we have to keep from falling into a sinful condition through our right status and good standing.[23]
Infant baptism is related to original sin and Pelagius used this illustration to support his thinking. This idea that Christ destined un-baptized children to the punishment of everlasting fire was rejected by Pelagius and his friend Celestius. Regarding infants’ baptism, Pelagius wrote that “infants receive baptism not on account of their sins but in order that they may through baptism be, as it were created in Christ and become partners in his heavenly kingdom.” The children who were baptized was not for the remission of their sins but to gain sanctification.[24] He felt that when the children of unbelievers died at a very early age, the Scripture is silent. He believed that all believers who have lost children in their infancy will see them again one day in the glory of the heavenly kingdom.[25] Pelagius could accept infant baptism, but denied its efficacy in washing away an inherited guilt. He completely rejected the notion of original sin. He strongly believed that infants are not born responsible before God for their ancestor Adam’s sin. In fact, Pelagius firmly held his theology and wrote in his book on free-will that evil is not born with us, and we are procreated without fault. Pelagius’ belief is that we are all born into a world corrupted by sin and we all tend to sin due to the bad examples shown us by our parents and peers. If we sin, it is because of our own willful choice and knowledge of sin.[26] Pelagius clearly defined his theology in this writing:
“One’s sin is voluntary and is one’s own; it cannot be transmitted. All human beings are as Adam was at the first. The universality of sin is due to bad example, which one need not follow, and to one’s desires, which are innocent when directed and controlled. Men have the power to do right. What they lack is understanding, which can be acquired. And as for physical death, it is not the result of sin. Adam would have died anyway, like all physical beings.”[27]

At the heart of Pelagius’ teaching was that God created man in his own image, and he endowed him with an innate capacity to choose between good and evil according to the prompting of his conscience. This innate capacity makes our own free choice between good and evil that we inherit from Adam, not the tainted legacy of original sin. The sole effect of Adam’s sin upon us is that we habitually imitate him. It is not Adam’s concupiscence but his example in disobeying God’s command which turns us away from good and evil.[28] When Pelagius read Roman 5 in a Latin translation that Augustine used, he didn’t think it implied that humans were involuntarily guilty of Adam’s sin. It says noting in Romans that Paul contrasted the results of the deeds of Christ with those of Adam, so Pelagius engaged in a reduction ad absurdum argument. “If the sin of the first Adam automatically implicates all people before they sin on their own volition, then the benefits of the last Adam are likewise distributed en masse without anyone having to make a personal commitment to Christ.” Then Pelagius interpreted Rom.5:12 in this way: “The statement that all sinned in Adam was not made because of the sin which is derived from one’s birth, but because of imitation of him.” So that everyone is born into a human environment that is quite different from that of the original paradise. Pelagius’ belief is that apart from Christ, humans are powerless to overcome habitual sinning.[29]
At the Synod of Diospolis in A.D 145, when the Synod asked questions concerning original sin to Pelagius, Adam’s sin injured only himself and not the human race and that a man can be without sin, if he wishes, Pelagius boldly answered:
I did indeed say that a man can be without sin and keep the commandments of God, if he wishes, for this ability has been given to him by God. However, I did not say that any man can be found who has never sinned from his infancy up to his old age, but that, having been converted from his sins, he can be without sin by his own efforts and God’s grace…there were men without sin before the Lord’s coming I also say that before Christ’s coming some men lived holy and righteous lives according to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures.[30]

To summarize the theology of Pelagius, Adam was created mortal to die even if he had no sin. Adam’s sin is not related to the entire human race but only harmed himself. All humans neither die because of Adam’s sin, nor rise because of Christ’s resurrection. New-born children all enjoy the status of Adam before his fall and will experience eternal life irrespective of baptism. For salvation, both the law and the gospel are needed. Those who live sinless are prior to Christ.[31] For that reason, Pelagius boldly affirmed that a Christian can be without sin if he or she wishe.

PELAGIUS’ THEOLOGY ON FREE WILL
As we have mentioned in a short introduction about free will, Pelagius deeply held that the human being totally possesses absolute freedom of the will and is totally responsible for personal sins. He viewed, human nature as well created that is essentially free and that imperfection in man would reflect negatively upon the goodness of God. Pelagius strongly contested this concept that the human free will was like a pair of balance pans in perfect equilibrium, and not subject to any bias whatsoever. For him, there was no need for divine grace in the sense as understood by Augustine. The reason is that when God made human nature, He really knew what they needed. All the commands that were given are capable of being obeyed by human. It is said since “perfection is possible for humanity, it is obligatory.”[32] Pelagius syas in his theology on free will that all good acts require divine aid-adiutorium Dei- and it is this divine aid which alone gives us true libertas, because humans are set to do good. This is the true freedom of will which is the purely human freedom of choice such as Adam possessed before his fall. In other words, in order to become truly free, man must become first a servant of God, in whose service is the only perfect freedom.[33]
Augustine’s starting point concerning sin is taken from the natural ability of man. His fundamental point is that God has commanded man to do good so man has the ability to do it. The reason is that man has a free will in the absolute sense of the word so that it is very possible for him to decide to do good or evil. Doing good or evil is simply depending on his free will and independent will. It then says that good and evil are located in the separate actions of man and sin consists only in the separate acts of the will. In fact, there is never such thing of original sin as a sinful nature, neither are there sinful dispositions because sin is always a deliberate choice of evil by a will which is perfectly free which  can just as well following the good. It had said that Adam was the first sinner but it is because of his choosing the course of evil.  The sense of his sins was not passed to his descendents. There is no such original sin. Their future course must be determined by their own free will, whether they do good or evil. The more sinful men is the man who is less responsible.[34]

CONCLUTION
The idea concerning the doctrine of original sin and free will is very different between great theologians, Augustine and Pelagius. In Augustine’s theology, the statement of original sin is based on Genesis 3, Romans 5:2ff. Augustine created this theology of original sin. Actually it seems that there is no real word, original sin, in the Bible. The starting-point in his theology on original sin begins at infant baptism. Everyone has sin which means inherited sin from Adam because we are the children of Adam. Therefore, every infant and new-born had sin so they have to baptized to defend their inherited sin of Adam. Augustine firmly held that all people are truly born in sin. He really believed that God gave free will to Adam and this free will is good. Humans can decide to do what is good and as well as evil. However, it is the first cause of sin.  Augustine says our free will really have power to do all that God wants us to do and foresaw everything for us. Augustine’s theology on free will is not seemed that man has free will but the grace of God, and that man’s free will can only be used under the will of God.
Pelagius’ theology concerning original sin is that original sin inherited from Adam did not belong to all men. Thus, infant baptism is meaningless because they all are sinless. Pelagius mentioned that if there was any influence of Adam upon his descendants, it was merely as a bad example and there is no other direct connection between Adam’s sin and the rest of the human race. As descendants of Adam, we imitate on his conscience and his example by disobeying God’s command.  Pelagius strongly rejected original sin: He believed that Adam’s sin injured only himself and not the human race because God had given the ability of free choice to all humans to do good as well as evil. God has given free will to man. All men have a free will in the absolute sense of the word so that it is very possible for him to decide to do good or evil. For that reason, there is never original sin as a sinful nature. Sinful nature is depended on our free will, choice, so it is said that Adam was the first sinner but it is because of his choosing the course of evil.  Pelagius believed that the sense of Adam’s sins was not passed to his descendants, so he concluded that there is no such thing as original sin. If the doctrine of original sin is true, much that is natural is broken and disordered, not what it should be because of the distorting power of sin.[35] I would like to define the problem this controversy between Augustine and Pelagius in this way: Augustine and Pelagius started out from opposite extremes, however, it should be understood that Augustine began with God and Pelagius with man. It is easier clear that Augustine strongly emphasized on God-being and Pelagius deeply emphasized on Human-being. If we understand it like this, there is no argument, even in today’s Christianity. It is the best to combine these two different perspectives into one Christian doctrine. Hopefully, it will be powerful to develop Christianity or to extend the kingdom of God in the post modern era.  
(Note: This is  my class paper for  World Christianity-1)

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Greenwood, David. Saint Augustine. New York: Vantage Press, 1956.

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[1] David Greenwood, Saint Augustine (New York: Vantage Press, 1956), 32-4.
[2] Henri Marrou, St. Augustine: And His Influence Through The Ages ( London: Longmans, 1960), 11-15.
[3] From David, Saint Augustine, 69-71.
[4] Miyon Chung, “Writing the Grace of Life: A Brief Reflection on St. Augustine’s Confession,” Torch Trinity Journal12, no.1, ed. Glenn A. Jent (November 2009), 45.
[5]Saint Augustine: Bishop of Hippo, Doctor of the Church (A.D.430)”, available from: http://www.
copticchurch.net/topics/synexarion/augustine.html, accessed at 2 August 2012.
[6] Lars P. Qualben, A History of The Christian Church (New York: Thomas Nelson And Sons, 1955), 124.

[7] Neil Ormerod, Grace & Disgrace: A Theology of Self-Esttem, Society and History (Australia: E.J. Dwyer, 1992), 109-111.
[8] Paul J. Griffiths, Lying: An Augustinian Theology of Duplicity (Grand Rapid, MI: Brazos Press, 2004), 55, 58.
[9]O.M. Bakke and John Wall, “When Children Became People: The Birth of Childhood in Early Christianity,” Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 60, No.3, ed. James A. Brashler (July 2006), 338-340.
[10] Clark H. Pinnock, ed., A Case for Arminianism: The Grace of God the Will of Man (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing, 1989), 187.
[11] James Walsh, ed., Free Will (USA: Prentice-Hall, 1962), 14, 17.
[12]Norman Geisler, Chosen But Free: A Balanced View Of Divine Election, second ed. (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 2001), 156.
[13] Justo Z. Gonzalez, A History of Christian Though: From Augustine to the Eve of the Reformation, vol.2 (Nashville: Abingdon press, 1984),41-2.
[14] Frederick E Sontag, "Augustine's metaphysics and free will," Harvard Theological Review 60, no. 3(July 1, 1967): 8. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed August 8, 2012).
[15] Bernhard Lohse, A Short History of Christian Doctrine, trans. By F. Ernest Stoeffler (Philadelphia: Fortress press, 1996), 106-09.
[16]Pelagius,” available from: http://www.tlogical.net/biopelagius.htm, accessed at 2 August 2012.
[17]  Pelagius,” available from: http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/people/pelagius.htm, accessed at 2 August 2012.
[18] B.R. Rees, Pelagius Life and Letter: The Letters of Pelagius and His Followers, vol.2 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1998), 112-13.
[19] Arthur Wilford Nagler, The church In History (Chicago: The Abingdon Press, 1932), 76.
[20] From Lars, A History of Christian Church, 124.
[21] William Alva Gifford, The Story of the Faith: A Survey of Christian History for the Undogmatic (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1946), 223.
[22]  Robert Bruce Mullin, A Short World History of Christianity (London: Westminster John Knox press, 2008), 75.
[23] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, Second ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), 649.
[24] B.R. Rees, Pelagius Life and Letters: Pelagius: A Reluctant Heretic, vol.1 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1998), 10, 13.
[25] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2007), 499-502.
[26] Roger E. Olson, The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition & Reform (England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1999), 268-270.
[27] FromWilliam, The Story of the Faith, 223.
[28] From B.R. Rees, Pelagius Life and Letter, vol.2, 7.
[29] William E. Phipps, "The Heresiarch: Pelagius or Augustine?." Anglican Theological Review 62, no. 2 (April 1, 1980): 6-7. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed August 8, 2012).
[30] From B. R. Pees, vol.1, 135-36.
[31]Alan P F. Sell, "Augustine versus Pelagius: a cautionary tale of perennial importance," Calvin Theological Journal 12, no. 2 (November 1, 1977): 4-5. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed August 9, 2012).
[32] Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction, second ed. (UK: Blackwell, 1997), 427.
[33] From B. R. Rees, Pelagius Life and Letter, vol.1, 40.
[34] L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, fourth revised. (Grand Rapids, MI: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing co., 1972), 233-4.
[35] Jonathan R. Baer, Wabash College, “Original Sin in America: Says Who?” Journal of the Conference on Faith and History “Review Essay”, ed. Ronald A. Wells, (Winter/spring, 2006): 214.

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