Academic literature on the topic 'Anti-Pelagian controversy'

This paper poses the question “Why did Augustine not use his Trinitarian theology to better effect in the Pelagian controversy?” I demonstrate first that Augustine’s mature Trinitarian theology would be directly relevant to the Pelagian discussions after the year 415. Second, I show a slight progression in Augustine’s treatment of relevant issues from 418 through the end of his life in his anti-Pelagian corpus. I argue that Augustine does not use his Trinitarian theology to his full advantage in the anti-Pelagian corpus. I suggest that Augustine avoided these connections at least in parí because the Trinitarian reflections on “God is love” (I Jn 4) would ultimately push the anti-Pelagian reflections on God’s love for Jacob (Rom 9:13) towards universalism, but Augustine had already rejected universalism.

In this article, I build upon Jean-Albert Vinel’s account of Augustine’s “liturgical argument” against the Pelagians by exploring how and why Augustine uses both the givenness of the practice of infant baptism and its ritual components as evidence for his theological conclusions in opposition to those of the Pelagians. First, I explore infant baptism in the Roman North African Church before and during Augustine’s ministry. Second, I interpret Augustine’s rhetorical adaptation of the custom in his attempt to delineate the defining characteristics of Catholic Christianity in the early fifth century. I show how Augustine mobilizes his belief in the efficacy of the Church’s practice of infant baptism to make explicit a boundary marker of “Catholic” Christianity, which was long implicit in the practice itself. Perceiving the consequences of Pelagianism, Augustine organizes his anti-Pelagian soteriology around the central node of infant baptism, the most theologically and rhetorically strategic means by which he could refute the Pelagian heresy and underwrite what he understood to be the traditional vision of sin and salvation evident in the baptismal rite.

Augustine’s ‘corpus’ of Pentecost sermones (29, 29A-B, 266-272B, 378) serves in this contribution as a case study to see whether he touches on the topic of grace within these specifically pastoral and liturgical sermones, and to what extent his homiletic treatment is different from his (anti-Pelagian) treatises on grace. The Spirit, liturgically celebrated at Pentecost, plays a central role in Augustine’s doctrine of grace. Furthermore, a possible link with the Donatist controversy will be examined. Augustine stresses ecclesial unity in the collection of Pentecost sermons, which is given by the Holy Spirit. The topic of unity in the Church is a central feature in is anti-Donatist polemics.

Augustine of Hippo was active in the period leading up to conciliar definitions of Christology, yet he displays remarkably distinct preferences in his treatment of Christ. Rather than repurposing his work to discover antecedent traces of the Chalcedonian definition –or the pervading influence of Nicene faith–one must remain open to Augustine’s own Christological method. For, in fact, as much as he held to a firm belief in the objective work of Christ and its proper role in the divine plan for human salvation, Augustine maintains a certain approach to biblical exegesis that reinvents our notions of Christology to include, primarily, exegetical praxis. A valuable example of this practice appears in the early ‘anti-Donatist’ homilies on John, in particular in the 9th and 15th where Augustine reads Christ into the whole of Scripture, beginning with Gen. 2:24-5. In so doing, the bishop of Hippo builds upon essentially Pauline interpretative strategies, even in his reading of the Fourth Gospel. The present contribution aims to identify those Pauline elements, chiefly among them the role of Eph. 5:31-2 and Rom. 5:14, the latter of which presents Adam as ‘forma futuri’ – that is, a prophet of Christ. In his reading of John 2 on the Wedding at Cana (homily 9) and John 4 (homily 15), Augustine develops a hermeneutic of recognising Christological prophecy in the ‘old testament’, and in so doing he develops the Pauline sentiment of Rom. 5:14 in new directions, applying it liberally to the successive Hebrew patriarchs. This new turn in studies of Romans, chapter 5, under the Christological programme of Augustine during his early anti-Donatist engagement, offers new light on possible early Christian interpretations of the Bible – especially welcome after so many reflections on Rom. 5:12 and its influence for the later Pelagian controversy.

2013 - 2014
Since the end of the 19th century, the history of Augustinian historiography has been characterized by numerous and varying attempts to find breaking points in Augustine’s philosophy and life, as well as strong interests about his intellectual development. The analyses of Augustine’s writings against the Pelagians, with an emphasis on methodology refutation, is an efficient interpretative key of Augustine’s intellectual and philosophical development. This thesis is divided into two chapters, both dedicated to the analysis of Augustine’s writings against the Pelagians, and also containing a short appendix in which consideration is given to the sermons delivered by Augustine in the early stages of the anti-Pelagian controversy. In the first chapter, De peccatorum meritis et remission et de baptismo parvulorum, written in order to refute the theories sustained by Pelagians and condemned by the Council of Carthage in 411, is analyzed. De spiritu et littera is then analyzed, explaining Augustine’s perspective that the impeccantia is possible only by the implementation of Christ. The analysis of De natura et grazia follows, in which Augustine asserts, in agreement with what Pelagius wrote in his De natura, stating that human nature is good, but emphasizes that it is in need of God’s grace in order to desire and act well and according to God’s will. The analysis continues with De perfectione iustitiae hominis, composed to refute the Definitiones ut dicitur Celestii, a book in which Celestius proposes sixteen arguments in order to show that humans have the ability and must live without sin. De gestis Pelagii is then analyzed, a book in which Augustine examines and assesses the orthodoxy of Pelagius’ defense, given during the Synod of Diospolis. The first chapter is concluded with the analysis of De gratia Christi et de peccato originali, where the important topics involved in the controversy against the Pelagians are summarized. In the second chapter De nuptiis et concupiscentia is analyzed, a book in which Augustine distinguishes the evil of the concupiscence from the goodness of marriage. The analysis of Contra duas epistolas Pelagianorum follows, written to refute two Pelagian letters that circulated in Rome as propaganda. In conclusion, Contra Iulianum and Contra secundam Iuliani responsionem, Opus imperfectum are analyzed; they were composed to respectively disprove Ad Turbantium and Ad Florum of Julian of Eclano, where Augustine’s doctrine of original sin is accused as Manichean. In the appendix, Augustine’s Sermones are analyzed; it is probable that these sermons against the rising Pelagian heresy were given before 411 or, in any case, before its official intervention in the Pelagian controversy. This thesis shows that despite the undeniable evolution of Augustine’s thoughts, which forced him to redefine some of his theological positions, the methodology outlined in Dialogues and adopted since his conversion to Christianity is not disqualified. According to that methodology, philosophical speculation must be triggered by God’s calling and conducted by preceding faith to reason. [edited by Author]
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