Pelagianism
Protestant accounts differ on the order of grace, faith, and works, but classical traditions reject the idea that fallen humanity can attain saving righteousness without grace.
Historical context
The controversy developed in the Latin West in the late fourth and early fifth centuries. Regional councils including Carthage (418) rejected claims judged to make grace unnecessary, and later Western debates refined different accounts of sin and grace. Eastern and Western traditions share a rejection of self-sufficient salvation while using different theological vocabularies.
Reception
Protestant accounts vary from monergist to synergist, but classical traditions reject the idea that fallen humanity can begin saving faith without grace.
Memory hook
Grace is the source of healing, not an optional supplement to effort.
Key points
- Human freedom and effort are real, but they do not originate saving righteousness independently of God.
- Grace is not merely a reward for a first movement that unaided nature has already made.
- The dispute includes the condition of fallen humanity, baptism, forgiveness, and the healing of the will.
- Rejecting Pelagianism does not mean rejecting moral action; it means locating every good response within God's prior gift and healing.
Common questions
- Does the necessity of grace eliminate free will?
- How do effort and grace work together?
- Is every emphasis on human responsibility Pelagian?
Doctrinal connections
- Grace
- Sin and healing
- Free will
- Baptism
- Salvation
Scripture
- John 15:5 — Jesus describes his disciples' dependence on him for fruitfulness.
- Ephesians 2:8-10 — Paul describes salvation as God's gift and good works as its fruit.
Primary sources
The council's third canon states:
The Council of Carthage says that grace does more than forgive past sins: it also assists future obedience.
whoever should say that the grace of God, by which a man is justified through Jesus Christ our Lord, avails only for the remission of past sins, and not for assistance against committing sins in the future, let him be anathema.
Passage context and translation
The North African canon rejects an account of grace limited to forgiveness while leaving subsequent obedience to unaided effort.
Before the excerpt
Likewise it seemed good, that