Answer to the Pelagians, III
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
What we call the Pelagian heresy actually took many forms, and had multiple proponents at different stages before it was officially condemned. Augustine, as bishop of Hippo, saw that these teachings were dangerous and set out to address them by explaining the true Church doctrine on these subjects. He first denounced the heresies verbally, in sermons and conferences. When a friend asked him to clarify the Christian doctrines contradicted by certain heresies, Augustine wrote down his rebuttal at length. Over time he wrote nearly a dozen distinct texts in direct answer to the various Pelagian heresies.
Top Highlights
“Clearly sin is not imputed when there is no law, but it is not imputed by human beings who do not know the inscrutable judgments of God. For if God does not impute sin when there is no law, how under the justice of God can it be that those who sinned without the law will perish without the law (Rom 2:12).” (Page 253)
“Why, then, should things which are unlike not be brought together in comparison, as you said a little before, since this comparison is based on opposites? On one side there is birth, on the other rebirth; on one side the reign of death, on the other the reign of life; on the one side an abundance of sins, on the other the forgiveness of sins. On the one side there is delight in sin coming from a defect of nature and leading to habitual sin; on the other a battle against the concupiscence of the flesh through the help of the Holy Spirit that leads to the peace of victory which endures no enemy within or without. Hold on to these points if you want to be healthy, and do not rage against these ideas which are a part of sound doctrine.” (Page 262)
“What are you saying, you, a human being with such foolish ideas? To the extent that it is higher, divine justice is more inscrutable than human justice, and further removed from it. After all, does any just human being permit that a crime be committed which that person has the power to prevent? And yet God permits this, though he is incomparably more just than all just human beings, and his power is incomparably greater than all other powers. Bear these ideas in mind, and do not compare God as judge to human judges, for we must not doubt that he is just, even when he does what seems unjust to human beings and does what would be unjust if human beings did it.” (Pages 294–295)