The traditional Christian doctrine of
grace is that it is an act of God reaching out to sinful humankind, enabling
them to do good. In the Early
Church
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Pelagius’ view was that we are responsible for our
own actions, which we have freely chosen to do, because God has made us in such
a way that we can respond to him. His doctrine of grace is that it is seen in
this God-given ability, and in the forgiveness of sins. The giving of the law,
the teachings of the gospel and the act of baptism are, for Pelagius, gifts of
grace.
To Augustine, this view was heretical, as he
believed that without God’s redeeming grace, “mankind is a lump of perdition,
incapable … of any act of pure good will, and all the virtues of the good pagan
are vitiated by sin.” For Augustine, God’s gift of grace is much more
significant; it is the inward working of the Spirit, which is necessary for
everything, as it enables us to turn to God. It is a divine gift, which cannot
be earned by humans.
As a Unitarian, I am firmly opposed to Augustine
and in favour of Pelagius. As Cliff Reed explains in Unitarian? What's That?, for Unitarians, sin is “the failure to
act, speak or think in ways that one knows to be right. Or … to fall short of
the standards of conduct that one’s own faith or ethical system regards as
ideal.”
Unitarians are also opposed to the
Augustinian view of grace as something without which humankind can achieve
nothing good. The traditional Unitarian view, as explained by Alfred Hall, is
that “the grace of God encircles all, nevertheless … man has to do something to
lift himself, even if it is only to accept the proffered grace of God.” We
believe like Pelagius that “salvation is to be found in growth of character
towards perfection [and that] salvation depends not on the intellectual
acceptance of any dogma, but on living a true and noble life.”
A very beautiful and more contemporary Unitarian view of grace is that of Jane Barraclough: "Grace is a gift. It comes from outside ourselves. It has nothing to do with how virtuous we are, or aren't. ... The world is simply here for us as a gift. We can choose to receive the gift with gratitude ... To experience grace we have to be open to the possibility of its existence. The winds of grace may always be blowing but we need to have our sails up if we are to make any headway."
Unitarians also, when they believe in
salvation, believe that it is universal. In other words, everyone can
potentially be "saved". They would disagree strongly with the
Calvinist ideas of there being an 'elect' - a certain portion of humankind
chosen by God to be saved, whereas the rest will be damned, and would also
disagree with the idea of predestination - that God has decided before we are
born, who should be saved and who should be damned. Unitarians believe that
everyone has the potential to be saved, through their own actions.
Sound words, Sue. Pelagius was a fifth-century British Christian leader who retained some of the wisdom from his (and our) Druid forebears. His contemporary Augustine was craftier politically and won the ear of Rome to have Pelagius marginalised as a heretic.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, as you know but others might not, this Augustine is not the arrogant prelate who refused to sit down with the British bishops when they met at a place near Bristol that came to be named Penrhyn Austin after him, subsequently shortened to Aust, the one who is best known as the first Archbishop of Canterbury. But both Augustines give me the impression of sharing a strong sense of the superiority of their own opinions.
And it is still helpful to affirm the essential goodness of humanity, in contrast to the doctrine of Original Sin. (Wasn’t that also one of Augustine’s inventions, taking church teaching another step away from Jesus’s teachings in a direction favourable to church power over us?) I suggest there is a parallel in modern times between the outlook of Freud, and the attitude to human psychological growth that flows from it, full of repressed desires and dark unconscious urges, and that of Carl Rogers, whose view of human nature has confidence that if a few simple conditions are present, a human being will grow constructively and beneficially. (These conditions, while simple, are not easy to sustain in a close relationship because one’s own “I wants” get in the way.)
I see room, though, for a both/and of Pelagius’s “growth of character towards perfection [and that] salvation depends not on the intellectual acceptance of any dogma, but on living a true and noble life” and Augustine’s “the inward working of the Spirit, which is necessary for everything, as it enables us to turn to God. It is a divine gift, which cannot be earned by humans”. Indeed may it not be that as a person grows in “character” and “true and noble” living, they become more attuned to “the inward working of spirit” and to “turning to God” – and vice-versa in an enduringly progressive virtuous spiral?
Thank you. Yes, I agree; , especially with your last sentence. Sue
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