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Saint Augustine: Four Anti-Pelagian Writings
- 2023/12/31
- 再生時間： 36 分
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あらすじ・解説
A theologian writes a critical response to a popular teaching. He destroys it. The teaching and teacher are irredeemably branded as heresy and heretic. Augustine vs. Pelagius, the battle of the ages. Today I read what nobody else wants to read to find out was Saint Augustine correct? Is Pelagianism a heresy and Pelagius a heretic?"Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Today I review "Saint Augustine: Four Anti-Pelagian Writings" translated by John Mourant and William Collinge. 372 pages, published by The Catholic University of America Press in January 1992. It's available in Amazon for USD42.24 (as of the date of recording) and in Logos for USD30.99. Pelagius Was Not A Heretic"Pelagius was not a heretic. The church has gotten him wrong." This was news to me. When I first started reading theology, I learnt that Pelagius taught that man, by nature, is able to live completely sinless lives and that this was heresy. And the man who succeeded in destroying this heresy is a hero of the church, the same man who wrote Confessions and City of God, Saint Augustine of Hippo.So I was surprised to hear that heretic Pelagius was misunderstood and great man Augustine wrote a hit job on him. I have no skin in the game, if Pelagius was truly innocent of the charges, then let justice be done. I began by reading Pelagius in his own words. I found Pelagius' Letter to Demetrias, which is available for free online. And I was shocked! Let me read from that letter:Nor is there any reason why it is made difficult for us to do good other than that long habit of doing wrong which has infected us from childhood and corrupted us little by little over many years and ever after holds us in bondage and slavery to itself, so that it seems somehow to have acquired the force of nature. We now find ourselves being resisted and opposed by all that long period in which we were carelessly instructed, that is, educated in evil, in which we even strove to be evil, since, to add to the other incentives to evil, innocence itself was held to be folly.Pelagius does not believe that we inherit the sinful nature from Adam, but instead we copied what we see around us. In short, Pelagius does not believe in, what we know today as, Original Sin, an idea we have Augustine to thank for. Augustine was right to condemn it! Without reading Augustine, I already know I am against Pelagianism. Someone might say that's because I have already been corrupted little by little over many years by Augustine. In response, I concede that the books I read favour Augustine, but I truly believe my convictions come directly from the Bible. I could leave it as that. Sustaining my position on biblical grounds. But since the discussion is on two separate but related questions: Is Pelagianism a heresy? Is Pelagius a heretic? If we want to properly answer these questions, we should read the man who was instrumental in the condemnation. We should read Augustine's own words and not what other people said he said. We need the primary source. Read The Primary SourceI searched and bought a translation of Saint Augustine: Four Anti-Pelagian Writings. I hope to find out answers to a few questions like: What did Augustine understand of Pelagianism? Was he fair in his criticism? Did Augustine respond with biblical truth or philosophical arguments or did he just rile up religious fervour?Most, if not all, of the answers to those questions can be found in the first two writings collected in the book. They are On Nature and Grace and On the Proceedings of Pelagius. They were written in 415-416AD, shortly after Pelagius went to court. These are hot off the press responses from Augustine on the events of the day.The other two are shorter and written much later. The titles are On the Predestination of the Saints and On the Gift of Perseverance. These were not written to address Pelagianism directly but they are here because Augustine is dealing with a related problem.Working Out Theology is Not Neat and TidyThe first thing that struck me was how messy everything was. Let me explain. Any good book on Systematic Theology will say this is what Augustine believed, this is what Pelagius believed. If the book had a bit more space to spare, they quote a sentence, a paragraph from Augustine and/or Pelagius. Everything is neat and tidy.When you read this book, it's not. Here, you see Augustine trying to get a handle on Pelagius. "Did he really say what he said?" Christian leaders are pestering Augustine to respond to Pelagius' teaching. Augustine is reluctant to go after the man but is compelled to go against the teaching.Listen to this. The love we have for him [Pelagius] now is different from the love we had for him formerly; then we loved him as one who seemed to be of the true faith, whereas we now love him in order that, by the mercy of God, he may be set free from those antagonistic views which he is said to hold ...