Grace and Salvation

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, there were two main views, as propounded by Augustine and Pelagius.

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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.