WJEC/Eduqas RS for A2/Yr2: Religion and Ethics (DRAFT)

T4 Determinism and free will

Pelagius (354–420) was a Christian monk from the British Isles and an ascetic monk, more associated with Celtic Christianity (closely linked to the Eastern rather than Western church tradition). He had chosen a lifestyle characterised by abstinence from worldly pleasures to pursue spiritual goals. The church historian Robert F. Evans points out that many have seen Pelagius as more of a moralist than a theologian concerned with the ‘concrete problems of the

Key terms Abstinence: the option taken not to participate in something Ascetic: the disciplined lifestyle of a monk Original sin: the sin committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden Rationalistic moralism: the theory that morality is purely accessible through reason and has no need for God unbaptised child as going straight to hell is the invention of human minds at work to secure the ecclesiastical establishment as a system of control. (Bishop Sims) All Christians are free to choose for themselves what, for them, is orthodox or heretical what seems to them the straightest kind of searching into the enduring mysteries of God and the world. (Bishop Sims) Key quotes The doctrine that holds an

Celtic Christianity is often associated with ornate images of the cross.

Christian life’; however, his theological ideas did direct his ethical views. Whilst in Rome, Pelagius drew the criticism of orthodox leaders for teaching women to read scripture and for spending too much time talking indiscriminately to the public in town. However, for Pelagius, God’s image is found in every person and his was a practical Christianity. In terms of orthodox Christian theology, Pelagius is the ‘bad boy’, the ‘villain’ of Christian theology. As Evans explains, ‘Pelagius and the heresy called by his name continue to provide occasion for careless slogans and confident postures’. In an article in The Aisling , a Celtic magazine devoted to Celtic Christianity and spirituality, Bishop Bennett J. Sims (an Anglican of the Episcopal Church in the USA) confirms the reasons for this scorn by directly relating it to the writings of Augustine and Augustine’s influence of the Church throughout history in terms of the teachings of original sin and predestination. Bishop Sims also expresses his concerns that the obsession with original sin in the Church reflects the Church’s underlying aim of control; he writes: ‘If ever it seemed to you that church services were subtly designed to organise your guilt and then, by the standing privilege of an ordained person, offer you a pardon which only priestly officials of organised religion can bestow, you saw through, however dimly, the smokescreen of the control mechanism derived from Augustine’s doctrine of original sin.’ As regards Pelagius, there were two main accusations made against him: (1) Augustine saw Pelagius as the enemy of the grace of God because he rejected original sin; accordingly, for Augustine, Pelagius made the sacrificial death of Christ redundant by suggesting human beings were responsible for their own salvation. Karl Barth continued this accusation in the 20th century, insisting that Pelagius sets out a doctrine of man’s own self-determination in the place of a proper doctrine of man’s being determined by God. The real issue here was that God’s role in

DRAFT

salvation, as omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent deity, was not recognised. It is God who saves, through God’s grace and by faith alone and not through good works. (2) For Jerome, Pelagius is the promoter of the perfectionism of Origen and his doctrine of sinlessness, who, according to church historian Harnack represented no more than a ‘ rationalistic moralism ’. This was the outcome of Pelagius’ insistence on the autonomy of free will within the context of salvation. Pelagius insisted that it was possible to achieve a sinless life (although whether he meant everyone in practice is debatable).

Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden because of their sin against God.

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