The following is a graded short paper (A: 94%) submitted for the course Church History 13: Early and Medieval Christianity. The professor is Dr. J. Warren Smith, Associate Professor in Historical Theology:
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Grace and Human Agency in the Writings of Pelagius and St. Augustine of Hippo
How is one saved by grace? Or how does grace work in the life of a repentant sinner? Pelagius and Augustine have different interpretations regarding grace’s operation. In his Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans Pelagius affirms that humans are saved by grace through their faith in Christ’s death and resurrection[i]. Moreover for Pelagius grace is given through Christ so that believers participate in Christ’s righteousness by imitating his example. Augustine gives a detailed examination of the relationship between grace and human agency from his perspective. In his commentary On the Spirit and the Letter Augustine argues that the human will is enslaved to sin. Thus humans are unable to respond to God’s salvation by their volition. Through the agency of the Holy Spirit God gives grace which is prevenient[ii]; this means that God’s grace goes before to free the human will (voluntas) from the bondage of sin. Moreover God gives faith to humans so that they may respond to God’s gift of salvation[iii]. I will argue that Pelagius and Augustine give different perspectives on the relationship between grace and human agency. In order to demonstrate this we will first analyze each theologian’s understanding of sin, justification, and human agency.
Pelagius affirms that none can merit salvation. Human weakness necessitates God’s act on humanity’s behalf. Thus Pelagius appears to affirm Paul’s teaching that Christ’s death procures the salvation of those who believe (Pel. 5.1, p. 88). Believers are justified by faith (Pel. 5.1, p. 89). “None” Pelagius comments, “is saved by his own merit, but all are saved in the same way by God’s grace” (5.1, p. 89). Since believers are declared righteous by God, they are no longer considered sinners, those who imitate Adam’s disobedience. Through perseverance believer will gain full bodily redemption at the Eschaton (5.3;4, p. 89-90). Pelagius also affirms Paul’s teaching that because of Christ’s love for sinners, believers can imitate Christ’s righteousness by following his example of obedience. It is because of God’s love for sinners, it behooves believers to behave in a manner which reflects Christ’s righteousness (5.8, p.91).
Human agency is integral to Pelagius’s understanding of Paul’s typology. Adam is represented in Romans 5 as a type of Christ. However to be clear Pelagius does not assert a federal headship[iv] argument in his commentary. He does however argue that Adam is a sort of model humanity has followed by transgressing God’s commandments. Humanity’s following of Adam’s transgression resulted in death and separation from God. “As long as [humans] sin the same way, they likewise die” (Pel. 5.12, p. 92) Humanity procured the wrath of God as a result of patterning Adam’s disobedience. Pelagius understands Paul to assert that death came to all who lived in ungodly ways, not that death passed to all who inherited a condition which predisposed them to sin. “Death reigned from Adam” until Christ appeared because of humans’ habitual behavior. Thus Pelagius understands sins to be actions that are external from the soul and are not intrinsic to the human condition. The human nature has been “reunited in peace, because by nature we had been united in peace” (5.10, 91-92). Sins are not passed through the soul in procreation. According to Pelagius’s reading of Paul, Adam is antitype to Jesus Christ, the exemplar of righteous actions. Righteous actions produce the righteousness of Christ. Believers are given grace to imitate the ways of Christ. Pelagius maintains that Christians should no longer imitate the ways of Adam.
Human agency also is integral to Augustine’s understanding of grace. However it is the agency of God the Holy Spirit is central to Augustine’s understanding of grace. In The Spirit and the Letter Augustine exposits on the subject of the law and the Spirit found in St. Paul’s Second Epistle to the Corinthians and the Epistle to the Romans. From the outset of the excerpt Augustine repudiates any argument for the attaining of righteousness without divine agency (Aug. §4, 151). Although Augustine concedes that God did create humans with free will, he nevertheless asserts that human will is only capable of sinning without illumination which truth gives (Aug. §5, 152). Only the Holy Spirit can free the will to fully desire God and the things of God. Augustine observes that it is the love for God which is only enabled by God’s giving of the Holy Spirit enables to human will to strive for righteousness. “Free choice,” Augustine writes, “is capable only of sinning, if they way of truth is hidden” (Aug. §5, p. 152). God’s love poured out by the Holy Spirit enables humans to desire and to do the good.
The law which God gave is the mirror which brings humanity the knowledge of sin. Augustine reads Paul’s metaphor to explain how the law is used to lead sinners to God’s grace. The “letter kills” because since the law cannot justify the sinner and if the Spirit is not given the sinner cannot turn towards righteousness. This is due humans’ lack of freedom of the will (voluntas) to choose to the good. Human volition can only attain righteousness through its cooperation with the action of God.
Augustine warns that the law explicitly forbids any wrongdoing (Aug. §7, p. 153). However without the Spirit’s aid none are able to heed the law’s commandments. The law then “leads us to know sin rather than to avoid it and increases sin rather than lessens it, because the transgression of the law is added to the evil desire” (Aug. §8, p. 154). Here lies the striking difference between how Augustine and Pelagius understand human condition. As aforementioned Pelagius understands sins to be external from the soul. However Augustine describes the human nature to be “diseased” with sin. All sin is inherent in the human condition and thus necessitates healing which grace brings.
Grace is thus the remedy which heals the sinful human condition. For Augustine God is not only a teacher which instructs his creatures in the ways of righteousness, but also a helper whose mercy frees them to obey his will (Aug §9, 154). Grace frees humanity from the shame which sin brings. Grace reconciles humanity back to their source. The law was not efficacious to bring salvation to God’s creatures. Those who obeyed the law, Augustine argues, obeyed out of fear of punishment not out of love for God’s righteousness.
Righteousness then is not a matter of human imitation but one of divine action in Augustine’s thought. God’s righteousness is given to humans in order that humans may walk uprightly (Aug. §11, p. 155). Since no one is justified on the basis on the law and that God’s righteousness is revealed apart from the law (Rom. 3:20-21), Augustine thus concludes that humans are incapable of attaining righteousness. It is by the Holy Spirit God confers righteousness to those who believe in Christ Jesus. Augustine outright rejects any notion that humans are justified through the acts of their own will (Aug. §14, p. 157).
Does grace rid humans of volition? Augustine’s answer is no. Grace is given to heal the wounded soul. Grace strengthens human free will to fulfill God’s law (Aug. §52, p.185). The free will soars to respond to the love which God gives in Christ through the power of the Spirit. Through the Spirit’s power human agency is given the power to will to love God’s righteousness which is in the law through faith.
Though faith is required of humans to respond to the gift of salvation, it is not in the human capacity to believe. So Augustine insists, drawing from the Pauline tradition, that faith is ultimately a gift from God. Augustine refers to Phil. 2:13 to explain that God is responsible for giving humanity the ability to do right. Thus faith is given to by God to do good works by grace.
Augustine and Pelagius both insist that salvation comes from God alone acting on the behalf of sinful creatures. Pelagius understands grace is necessary for humans to respond to God’s gift of salvation. Believers are justified by grace through faith which means for Pelagius those who believe respond by turn away from the habits of sin and escape the penalty of death which befell their progenitor Adam when he transgressed the commandment. Augustine on the other hand sees sin as first ontological then volitional. The remedy for ailing humanity is the grace the Spirit gives to humans because humanity is unable to will to do the good because of inherent sinful condition. God’s prevenient act through the Spirit strengthens the human will and God’s gives faith for humans to fulfill the righteous of the law which gains them justifying grace.
One cannot make an argument that Pelagius’s commentary presents an explicit heretical doctrine. However it is clear that Pelagius emphasizes human volition is not hindered. Humans can freely choose to righteousness through imitation of right behavior. His anthropology would subsequently lead to the development of teachings which bore his name. Augustine’s teachings on human volition and God’s justifying grace stood as orthodoxy among his contemporaries though in a modified version. From Augustine’s teachings the doctrine of original sin took full bloom in later centuries in the West and became a central doctrine in Medieval Catholic and Reformation theologies. It is quite clear that both theologians agree that God alone is the one who justifies the sinner through faith.
[i] Pelagius, Pelagius’s Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (OECS; Theodore de Bruyn, trans.; Oxford: Clarendon, 1993), 99-105.
[ii]See “grace, prevenient”, Donald E. McKim, Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms (Louisville: Westminster
John Knox, 1996).
[iii] Augustine, “The Spirit and the Letter” in John E. Rotelle, ed. and trans., The Works of Saint Augustine:
A Translation for the 21st Century (vol. 23; Hyde Park, N.Y.: New City, 1997), 144-194.
[iv] Donald K. McKim, Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1996).
“The view that Adam acted as a representative of the whole human race and that through the fall into sin (Gen 3), the whole human race now experiences the consequences of this sinful act (Roman. 5:12, 17-19).”
