Semi-Pelagianism While not denying the necessity of Grace for salvation, Semi-Pelagianism maintains that the first steps towards the Christian life are ordinarily taken by the human will and that Grace supervened only later. Arminianism In contrast to semi-pelagianism, Arminianism teaches that the first steps of grace are taken by God. This teaching derives from the [...]
Augustine & Pelagius
"It is Augustine who gave us the Reformation." So wrote B. B. Warfield in his assessment of the influence of Augustine on church history. It is not only that Luther was an Augustinian monk, or that Calvin quoted Augustine more than any other theologian that provoked Warfield's remark. Rather, it was that the Reformation witnessed the ultimate triumph of Augustine's doctrine of grace over the legacy of the Pelagian view of man.
Augustine & The Pelagian Controversy: The Origin & Nature of Pelgagianism by Benjamin B. Warfield
It was inevitable that the energy of the Church in intellectually realizing and defining its doctrines in relation to one another, should first be directed towards the objective side of Christian truth. The chief controversies of the first four centuries and the resulting definitions of doctrine, concerned the nature of God and the person of [...]
Augustine & The Pelagian Controversy: The External History of the Pelagian Controversy by Benjamin B. Warfield
Pelagius seems to have been already somewhat softened by increasing age when he came to Rome about the opening of the fifth century. He was also constitutionally averse to controversy; and although in his zeal for Christian morals, and in his conviction that no man would attempt to do what he was not persuaded he [...]
Augustine & The Pelagian Controversy: The Theology of Grace by Benjamin B. Warfield
The theology which Augustine opposed, in his anti-Pelagian writings, to the errors of Pelagianism, is, shortly, the theology of grace. Its roots were planted deeply in his own experience, and in the teachings of Scripture, especially of that apostle whom he delights to call ‘the great preacher of grace,’ and to follow whom, in his [...]
Outlines of Theology: Pelagianism, Semi-Pelagianism & Augustinianism by A. A. Hodge
A COMPARISON OF SYSTEMS In this chapter will be presented a brief sketch of the main contrasting positions of the three rival systems of Pelagianism, Semipelagianism, and Augustinianism, or as they are denominated in their more completely developed forms, Socinianism, Arminianism, and Calvinism–together with an outline of the history of their rise and dissemination. 1. [...]
