Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

To: spatso
Pelagius never rejected the concept of grace

If you say so... But the issue is whether it is grace alone that enables our good works. The Church teaches that it is; Pelagianism teaches that free will can accomplish good without divine grace. This is what the Council of Carthage (418) stated vis-a-vis pelagianism:

  1. Death did not come to Adam from a physical necessity, but through sin.
  2. New-born children must be baptized on account of original sin.
  3. Justifying grace not only avails for the forgiveness of past sins, but also gives assistance for the avoidance of future sins.
  4. The grace of Christ not only discloses the knowledge of God's commandments, but also imparts strength to will and execute them.
  5. Without God's grace it is not merely more difficult, but absolutely impossible to perform good works.
  6. Not out of humility, but in truth must we confess ourselves to be sinners.
  7. The saints refer the petition of the Our Father, "Forgive us our trespasses", not only to others, but also to themselves.
  8. The saints pronounce the same supplication not from mere humility, but from truthfulness.
  9. Some codices containing a ninth canon (Denzinger, loc. cit., note 3): Children dying without baptism do not go to a "middle place" (medius locus), since the non reception of baptism excludes both from the "kingdom of heaven" and from "eternal life".

(Pelagius and Pelagianism)

Note 5.

7,835 posted on 06/05/2006 8:33:36 PM PDT by annalex
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7814 | View Replies ]


To: annalex
"The grace of Christ not only discloses the knowledge of God's commandments, but also imparts strength to will and execute them.
Without God's grace it is not merely more difficult, but absolutely impossible to perform good works."

As I remember, Pelagius did not dispute the existence or importance of grace only the operative effect of the agency. Specifically, grace empowered man to live a moral life and the moral life itself enables the discovery of a power greater than the self. And, in this regard, man through this right relationship may come to know Christ. Rahner's writings on the notion of the "anonymous Christian" speaks of the man who knows good but has not yet met Christ.
Haight writing on Grace cites Alcoholics Anonymous as a remarkable example of the agency of grace in operation. AA spurns any religious affiliation or belief but encourages belief in a Higher Power or God of one's own choosing. The miracles of AA are well documented. The fellowship is filled with priests, ministers, elders and a whole bunch of everyday people who were unable to get sober on their own accord. Haight uses AA merely to illustrate the notion of a cooperative social structure enabling the restoration of a right relationship to God. It is not unusual for a non Christian member of AA to extend a critical helping hand to a suffering alcoholic who may be a lapsed Christian. Most often, that new person begins a journey of recovery within AA that will see them return them to Christ and often, to the faith community of their childhood.
I believe that grace is present in the good works of AA. Further, I believe that grace is present in the extended hand of the non Christian who reaches out to help. Indeed, I choose to believe that person could be the anonymous Christian that Karl Rahner described.
7,852 posted on 06/06/2006 4:52:48 AM PDT by spatso
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7835 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson