4D - Religious concepts of free will, with reference to the teachings of Pelagius and Arminius

Are free will and determinism compatible?

Are free will and determinism compatible?

⇨ Yes: the issue = to what extent is this compatibility with omnipotence balance/distributed between the two parameters of free will and determinism?

⇨ ∴ may find that Augustine + Arminius share more in common than Arminius + Pelagius

Give an introduction to Pelagius.

⇨ Ascetic monk

⇨ "doctrines are the intervention of the human minds, as it tries to penetrate the mystery of God [...] scripture itself is the work of human recording the example and teaching of Jesus."

⇨ "Thus, it is not what you believe (in your head) that matters; it is how you respond with your heart and your actions. It is not believing in Christ that matters, but becoming like him."

What is Pelagius' view of the role of original sin?

⇨ Humans cannot take credit for their freedom to choose ∵ this is willed by God
- We can only do good ∵ God has allowed us to

⇨ ∴ Adam's sin only affected Adam - it is not inherited by humanity
- Adam and Eve = mature enough to receive the gift of free will ∴ mature enough to take responsibility for their actions
- Pelagius ∴ rejects the doctrine of original sin

Explain Pelagius' view that humans should mature in God's image and accept the responsibility of free will.

⇨ Gift of free will enabled Adam and Eve to choose whether or not to eat the fruit ∴ allowed the process maturity to begin in eating it

⇨ Humans go through a learning process, and as they do, they grow + mature in wisdom
- Part of this learning process is defiance

⇨ Laws of Moses = a reminder for humans, as a remedy for ignorance to their own nature that had the capacity to choose between good/evil

Explain Pelagius' view of free will as used to follow God's laws.

⇨ Using free will to follow God's laws = doing "good works" e.g. following commandments
- "No one knows better the true measure of our strength than He who has given it to us"

⇨ Pelagius have examples of people from Old Testament who had used their free will in a mature way to follow God's laws e.g. Abel, Noah, Abraham, Job, etc.

What is Pelagius' view of the role of grace in salvation?

⇨ Humans = able to fulfil the law without divine aid ∴ can achieve salvation by freely choosing to do "good works"

⇨ But, all good works = done only with God's grace ("assisted by divine help")

⇨ ∴ God's grace = enabling, not determining good works

⇨ God = an agent of empowerment that allows us the freedom to do good works

⇨ However, humans have the capacity to ignore God's guidance and be sinful
- Ability to sin = good ∵ emphasises goodness when a human does good works - "this very capacity to do evil is also good [...] Because it makes the good part better by making it voluntary and independent"
- When people freely sin, can seek forgiveness through God's grace to achieve salvation - universal atonement

According to Pelagius, is grace necessary for salvation?

⇨ Only if we have all sinned

To avoid Pelagius' view of grace being accused of being Manichaean, what is the role and nature of the grace?

⇨ It is a 'light touch' when compared to the absolute dependence of Augustine's theology

Give a summary of Pelagius' views.

⇨ Free will allows good works but challenges the nature of salvation

⇨ Original Sin raises question of possibility of such depraved creatures achieving good

⇨ Augustine = terrified of Pelagius' theory ∵ teaches that humans have a decisive role

⇨ Original Sin = aligned with Manichaean teaching + an excuse not to strive for a moral life

How does Arminius deny predestination?

⇨ Arminius = taught by son-in-law + successor of Calvin, Theodore Beza

⇨ Arminius became dissatisfied with Calvinism + rejected Calvin's version of predestination (he does not reject predestination)

⇨ Made his own predestination theory, which was grounded in the theological concept of God's providence + was compatible with notion of free will (but he did not teach the priority of free will)

What is Arminius' revised form of predestination called?
Elaborate on it.

⇨ Conditional/middle knowledge predestination

⇨ This refers to foreknowledge without determinism
- Closely linked to providence, the idea that God = closely involved in monitoring/guiding the created world - "a solicitous, continued, and universally present supervision of God over the whole world [...] without any exception"

⇨ Key to the governance of the world = theological idea of divine concurrence
- God 'concurs' human activity throughout being part of it and providing the powers and abilities to act

⇨ Free will cannot be outside the parameter of God's province

⇨ Does not mean that creatures = merely vehicles through which God acts
- God = enabler; not the same as doing the action for the creature
- This is crucially important for his idea of free will and how is theology is compatible with predestination

According to Arminius, what is the effect of original sin on free will?

⇨ Arminius = opposed to the idea that the origin of sin can be found in God

⇨ As a result of divine concurrence, God permits sinful act but it does not mean that he approves of sinful behaviour
- ∵ God = omnipotent + omnibenevolent, part of his goodness is to be able to produce goods from evils - this is a superior solution than to not allow evils at all (similar to Augustine)

⇨ Unlike Pelagius, Arminius believes that original sin from fall = bad for humankind
- Original sin = lack of original righteousness + a punishment

Explain Arminius' idea of God's 'prevenient' grace in allowing humans to exercise free will.

⇨ God's providence gives the grace to freely choose the righteous path in life - humans are not predestined to continually sin ∵ of God's loving grace

⇨ God's grace = associated with Holy Spirit; this associated = called 'prevenient grace' ∵ it precedes each moral decision; it is ever-present to assist

⇨ God has placed his Holy Spirit within all humans; Holy Spirit encourages good works

⇨ The Holy Spirit will "fight against Satan, sin, the world, and their own flesh"

What does Rustin Brian say that Arminius' "fundamental impulse" is?

⇨ that "all are elect in Christ, and thus have the real possibility of salvation. God does not will that anyone should perish or be damned"

Explain Arminius' ideas of the elect, the possibility of rejecting God's grace, and the election of believers being conditional on faith.

⇨ Despite God's providence and middle knowledge, salvation is available to all

⇨ Arminius: "election to salvation and reprobation to condemnation are conditional. God chooses those who are foreknown to be penitent believers, and he condemns those he knows to be impenitent unbelievers"

⇨ Through middle knowledge, God knows who will reject his prevenient grace and then persevere in God's subsequent grace to salvation

⇨ Arminius: God has limited his control in correspondence with man's freedom.

⇨ ∴ God has provided possibility of salvation for all humanity, but it only becomes available/effective for those who, of their free will, choose to accept God's offer of grace and cooperate with the Holy Spirit

At the Synod of Dort in 1619, how did Arminius' supporters (known as the 'Remonstrants'), summarise his free will theory?

1) Salvation and condemnation = conditioned by belief/unbelief
2) Atonement = available to all but limited to those who trust Christ
3) Humankind cannot resist sin by their own will, they need Holy Spirit
4) Grace of God can be resisted
5) Humans can resist sin freely by following God's grace

Give a conclusion to Arminius.

⇨ Arminius' theological ideas were never meant to spearhead his thinking
- His notions = set within context of God's providence

⇨ Overall framework of providence holds that God does nothing without purpose

⇨ God's providence = eternal - logical rather than temporal

⇨ Whether a believer could commit apostasy required further study

What did Pelagius blame the abundance of sin he found in Rome on?

⇨ C.ch's predestination theology
- Bishop Sims: the C.ch's obsession with original sin reflects their underlying aim of control - "the smokescreen of the control mechanism derived from Augustine's doctrine of original sin."

How do Augustine and Pelagius differ on their view of the role of original sin?

⇨ The force of sin does not result from degraded human nature (as it does for Augustine) but from corruption and ignorance of righteousness that results from the long-term habit of sin

⇨ Both Augustine + Pelagius accept free will, but Augustine = wary that God's sovereign nature = upheld; it is a restrictive free will that is demonstrably within the control of the Almighty God, otherwise, it would imply that humans have achieved their own salvation

Give an Old Testament quote that supports Pelagius' view of the role of original sin.

⇨ Deuteronomy 24:16 - "Parents are not to be put to death for their children [...] each will die for their own sins" - humans should not be punished through no direct fault of their own
- Pelagius: "we may not seem to be forced to do evil through a fault in our nature"

How does Pelagius accept the Fall, but not accept original sin?

⇨ Participation in the fallen world leads to sin, not an inherited tendency
- To see sin as inherited is to fall foul of the doctrine of Manichaeism, which incorporated determinism and dualism
- To argue that sin = inherited means that it becomes a necessary element of human existence and implies that we are dualistic by nature

How do Augustine and Pelagius differ on their view of the role of grace in salvation?

⇨ Augustine: original sin ensured that humans could never be worthy of their own salvation ∴ grace = essential

⇨ Pelagius: grace plays a "deficient" role in comparison to Augustine's role

Finish the sentence and then elaborate: Arminius considered whether, spiritually, original sin meant _ or _.

⇨ Deprivation or depravation:
- Deprivation = deprived of the original spiritual likeness to God
- Depravation = idea that a certain state was "infused" into humanity ∵ of original sin
- Arminius tends to favour the former: deprived of "original righteousness" and of primaeval holiness

Give a quote from Wood about Arminius' view of the elect.

⇨ Wood: "For Calvinists, election is unconditional. For Arminius, it is conditional, based on God's foreknowledge-middle knowledge"

Give a sharp distinction between Pelagius' and Arminius' teachings regarding grace.

⇨ Arminius: "grace must still precede the human will to enable any turn toward God"
- Pelagius did not establish how grace worked in relation to free will

Despite the encasement of divine providence and notion of concurrence, what did Arminius hold?

⇨ That free will = possibility within the divine plan
- By free will, Arminius meant a clear, obvious choice not based upon determination of causality/context - a real choice between unconstrained alternatives, made possible through the notion of conditional predestination based upon middle knowledge

What was Arminius' view of the role of the Holy Spirit in a person's impulse to sin?

⇨ A human's impulse to sin = balanced by work of God's Holy Spirit
⇨ Holy Spirit balances impulse rather than overriding it
⇨ Holy Spirit does not force itself on to a human; only acts as a moral guide