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Showing posts with the label Pelagianism

Late Afternoon Roundup: Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

American Papist >> A legislative threat to the Archdiocese of Washington ? Meeting Christ in the Liturgy >> O Sapientia, by Abbott Guéranger, O.S.B Standing on My Head >> Pro Life Video The New Liturgical Movement >> The O Antiphons (with links to sung versions) WDTPRS >> Signs of Pelagianism (great discussion going on in the "Comments") WDTPRS >> A purpose of Summorum Pontificum (marvelous Pope Benedict!) WDTPRS >> WDTPRS: Last Days of Advent: 17 December

St. Augustine and Pelagianism

Stephen N. Filippo has a marvelous essay on Pelagianism on Ignatius Insight . This article originally appeared in a slightly different form in the November 1997 issue of Catholic Dossier. Here are just a few paragraphs to give you a peek: Although Pelagianism promoted moral fervor, there was an inherent danger in it: self-reliance, not God-reliance, based upon an inadequate understanding of human nature. Pelagianism stressed complete human autonomy and freedom of the will before God. Pelagius posited three elements to any moral action: 1. that we must be able to do it, 2. that we must be willing to do it, and 3. that the action must be carried out. Or the three elements can be described as possibility, will, and action. Possibility is a natural gift from God alone, but the other two, since they arise from man's choice, are from man. For instance, God has freely given us the gifts of speech, sight, hearing, etc., and the power to speak, see hear, etc., yet whether or not thes