4a. Guess Who- Pelagius or Arminius?

He wrote two major works on human free will: ‘On Nature’ and ‘Défense of the Freedom of the Will’.

• Pelagius

• Arminius

My theories angered the Catholic Church establishment in Rome so much so that I was eventually declared a heretic by the Catholic church at the Council of Carthage in 418AD, meaning my theory was officially condemned as false by the Catholic Church.

• Pelagius

• Arminius

• Both

Answer explanation

He blamed the abundance of sin, he found in Rome, on the Catholic Church’s predestination theology. This is because, according to Pelagius, people were not trying to control their urge to sin, because they felt the urge to sin was predestined and therefore, they had no choice but to sin. Therefore, moral behaviour had no purpose.

·   He argued an omnibenevolent God would not punish all of humanity for the sins of Adam and Eve.  Therefore, Adam’s sin only affected Adam and is not inherited by all of humanity.

• Pelagius

• Arminius

• Both

Answer explanation

He believed children are born innocent of Adam’s sin, in the same state as Adam before the fall (therefore, baptism is not required).  Adam set a bad example; he did not condemn us.

·       In fact, I then went one step further by arguing that ‘the fall’ can be seen as a good thing for humanity because it initiated a process of ethical maturity.

• Pelagius

• Arminius

• Both

Answer explanation

In Pelagius’ view, Adam and Eve, by choosing to eat from the forbidden tree, were illustrating to God that they were mature enough to receive the gift of free will.  It is this, free will, that humanity inherits from Adam and Eve i.e. that all people are responsible, to God, for their own actions.

My notion of moral responsibility led to the idea that humans can use their freewill to follow God’s moral law; such as following the 10 commandments. 

• Pelagius

• Arminius

Answer explanation

When humanity freely chose to resist a temptation and thus keep to a commandment, Pelagius referred to it as ‘doing good works’.   

I believe God’s grace will help humans achieve salvation but does not dictate it. This means that all ‘good works’ were carried out only with the grace of God as God is acting as a guide to do good works.

• Pelagius

• Arminius

Answer explanation

He wanted to make it clear, he was NOT arguing that humanity was completely able to fulfil the law (commandments etc) without God’s help.  It was God’s grace that allowed humans freedom, potential and capacity to fulfil the moral commands of God.

·       Unlike what Calvin believed, I said this grace is not irresistible, humanity has the free will capacity to ignore God’s guidance and be sinful or choose to do good works. 

• Pelagius

• Arminius

I believe in universal atonement i.e. Christ's death on the cross was everyone.  

• Pelagius

• Arminius

• Both

Answer explanation

Pelagius believed Christ's death on the cross was for the forgiveness of all humanity and that God grants atonement to all those who freely choose to have faith in him.  

Arminius says through this, God has given us the holy spirit, who allows us to exercise our free will despite original sin.

·       His theories were rejected after his death at the Synod of the Dort in 1618-1619 and his followers were persecuted.

• Pelagius

• Arminius

• Both

I eventually rejected Calvinism and claimed God needed to be defended against predestination claims, so that: “God might not be considered the author of sin, nor man an automation in the hands of God.”

• Pelagius

• Arminius

• Both

Answer explanation

He argued predestination made humanity automatons or pre-programmed robots/minions and that if predestination was correct, God must be responsible for all evil carried out by humanity.