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

T4 Determinism and free will

Pelagius: free will as used to follow God’s laws and the role of grace in salvation Pelagius believed that human beings can use their free will to fulfil God’s moral law (or as Pelagius put it ‘do good works’), such as following the commandments. This is because Pelagius believed that since God knows, as our creator, our human capabilities, God would not create commandments that humans could not follow. As Pelagius stated: ‘No one knows better the true measure of our strength than He who has given it to us nor does anyone understand better how much we are able to do than He who has given us this very capacity of ours to be able …’ However, this brings us once again to the heart of the debate between Augustine and Pelagius. For Augustine, original sin ensured that human beings could never be worthy of their own salvation. This was very clear. Paul also stated this in his biblical writings and according to Church teaching it is only through the grace of God as demonstrated in the atonement of Christ that salvation could be received. It is salvation freely given by God. According to Evans, therefore Pelagius was condemned for ‘teaching a correlative doctrine of the possibilities of human achievement which appeared to deny the necessity of grace’. Nonetheless, Pelagius did have something to say about the role of grace in salvation. According to Pelagius there was a role for grace in salvation. Even though many have considered it to be a ‘deficient’ role in comparison to Augustine’s role, it is still there. So what was the role of grace in salvation for Pelagius? Pelagius argued that human beings were perfectly able to fulfil the law without divine aid. He continued that all good works are done only with the grace of God. Therefore, Pelagius saw God’s grace as enabling , not determining , good works. As Pelagius stated: ‘God helps us by His teaching and revelation, whilst He opens the eyes of our heart. Whilst He points out to us the future, that we may not be absorbed in the present; whilst He discovers to us the snares of the devil …’ Therefore, God is not just acting as a guide to do good works, God is the agent of empowerment that allows us the freedom to do good works in the first place. Pelagius argued that God wished all human beings to do good and tried to guide human beings towards the good with their own free will. As Pelagius stated: ‘Our most excellent creator wished us to be able to do either (be good or bad) but actually to do only one, that is, good.’ However, the human being still has the free will capacity to ignore God’s guidance and be sinful . Pelagius believes this ability to sin is actually a good thing because it emphasises the goodness when a human being does good works. This is a point Pelagius argued when he stated: ‘this very capacity to do evil is also good – good, I say. Because it makes the good part better by making it voluntary and independent.’ Ultimately, Pelagius believed, that human beings do have the free will to choose to do good works, or be sinful, but when their free will chooses to do good works it is by the enabling grace of God. As Pelagius states: ‘Free will is in all good works always assisted by divine help.’ Furthermore, Pelagius believed that if human beings, with their free will, do choose not to follow God’s commandments and instead sin, that they can seek forgiveness. This is because through God’s Grace human beings can be forgiven and thus achieve salvation. Pelagius stated that God grants atonement through the sacrifice and death of Jesus Christ, to all those who freely choose to have faith in him. Therefore, Pelagius is suggesting universal atonement – Christ’s death on the cross was for the atonement of all human beings. Therefore, all human beings can achieve salvation.

Specificationc ontent Religious concepts of free will, with reference to the teachings of Pelagius. Free will as used to follow God’s laws and the role of grace in salvation.

Key quotes No one knows better the true measure of our strength than He who has given it to us nor does anyone understand better how much we are able to do than He who has given us this very capacity of ours to be able … (Pelagius) It is also true that Pelagius’ understanding of the term ‘grace’ is a very deficient one when regarded from the point of view of Augustinian theology. Our most excellent creator wished us to be able to do either (be good or bad) but actually to do only one, that is, good. (Pelagius) Pelagius’ insistence that men can be without sin is an emphatic assertion of the doctrine of creation by a just God; it is nothing more, and it is nothing less. (Evans)

Should we have a name here? – design

DRAFT

The cross of Christ was the ultimate source of grace.

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