Augustinian Calvinism

Last updated
The earliest known portrait of Saint Augustine in a 6th-century fresco, Lateran, Rome Augustine Lateran.jpg
The earliest known portrait of Saint Augustine in a 6th-century fresco, Lateran, Rome

Augustinian Calvinism is a term used to emphasize the alleged[ according to whom? ] origin of John Calvin's theology within Augustine of Hippo's theology over a thousand years earlier. By his own admission, John Calvin's theology was deeply influenced by Augustine of Hippo, the fourth-century church father. Twentieth-century Reformed theologian B. B. Warfield said, "The system of doctrine taught by Calvin is just the Augustinianism common to the whole body of the Reformers." [1] Paul Helm, a well-known Reformed theologian, used the term "Augustinian Calvinism" for his view in the article "The Augustinian-Calvinist View" in Divine Foreknowledge: Four Views. [2]

Contents

Introduction

John Calvin wrote, "Augustine is so wholly within me, that if I wished to write a confession of my faith, I could do so with all fullness and satisfaction to myself out of his writings." [3] "This is why one finds that every four pages written in the Institutes of the Christian Religion John Calvin quoted Augustine. Calvin, for this reason, would deem himself not a Calvinist, but an Augustinian. [...] Christian Calvinist, should they be more likely deemed an Augustinian-Calvinist?" [4] Cary concurs, writing, "As a result, Calvinism in particular is sometimes referred to as Augustinianism." [5]

The theology of Calvinism has been immortalized in the acronym TULIP, which states the five essential doctrines of total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints. These were detailed after Calvin's death in the Second Synod of Dort in 1618–1619 against the opposing Five Articles of Remonstrance which followed the theology of Jacobus Arminius. Modern Reformed theology continues to assert these five points of Calvinism, [6] as a simple summary of the soteriological doctrines which Calvin espoused and credited to Augustine.

Origin of the five points

Portrait of John Calvin Portrait of John Calvin, French School.jpg
Portrait of John Calvin

Augustine taught variants of these five points of Augustinian Calvinism the last eighteen years of his life. Previously he had taught traditional Christian views defending humanity's free choice to believe against the deterministic Manichaeans, to which he had belonged for a decade before converting to Christianity. [7] [8] In this Gnostic group, a non-relational God unilaterally chose the elect for salvation and the non-elect for damnation based upon his own desires. Early church fathers prior to Augustine refuted non-choice predeterminism as being pagan. [9] [10] [11] Out of the fifty early Christian authors who wrote on the debate between free will and determinism, all fifty supported Christian free will against Stoic, Gnostic, and Manichean determinism and even Augustine taught traditional Christian theology against this determinism for twenty-six years prior to 412 CE. [12] When Augustine started fighting the Pelagians he aligned his view with the Gnostic and Manichaean view and taught that humankind has no free will to believe until God infuses grace, which in turn results in saving faith. [13] [14] [15] Augustine himself argued against Manichaean influence in his book against Pelagianism, where he was accused of Manichaeanism by Pelagians. [16]

Total depravity and unconditional election in infant baptism

The controversy over infant baptism with the Pelagians was a major reason for Augustine's change. Tertullian (ca. 200) was the first Christian to mention infant baptism. He refuted it by saying children should not be baptized until they can personally believe in Christ. [17] Even by 400 CE there was no consensus regarding why infants should be baptized. [18] [19] The Pelagians taught infant baptism merely allowed children to enter the kingdom of God (viewed as different than heaven), so that unbaptized infants could still be in heaven. [20] In response, Augustine invented the concept that infants are baptized to remove Adam's original guilt (guilt resulting in eternal damnation). [21] Inherited original sin was previously limited to physical death, moral weakness, and a sin propensity. [22]

Another key element within infant baptism was Augustine's early training in Stoicism, an ancient philosophy in which a meticulous god predetermines every detailed event in the universe. [23] This included the falling of a leaf from a tree to its exact location on the ground and the subtle movements of muscles in roosters' necks as they fight, which he explained in his first work, De providentia (On Providence). [24] Augustine taught that God foreordained (or predestined) newborn babies who were baptized by actively helping or causing the parents to reach the bishop for baptism while the baby lived. By baptism, these babies would be saved from damnation. Augustine reasoned further that God actively blocked the parents of other infants from reaching the baptismal waters before their baby died. These babies were condemned to hell due to lack of baptism (according to Augustine). [25] [26] His view remains controversial, even some Roman Catholic Augustinian scholars refute this idea, [27] and scholars cite the view's origin as derived as from Platonism, Stoicism, and Manichaeism. [28] [29] [30]

Augustine then expanded this concept from infants to adults. Since babies have no "will" to desire their baptisms, Augustine expanded the implication to all humans. [31] He concluded that God must predestine all humans prior to them making any choice. Although earlier Christians taught original sin, the concept of total depravity (total inability to believe on Christ) was borrowed from Gnostic Manichaeism. Manichaeism taught unborn babies and unbaptized infants were damned to hell because of a physical body. Like the Gnostics, the Manichaean god had to resurrect the dead will by infusing faith and grace. Augustine changed the cause of total depravity to Adam's guilt but kept the Stoic, Manichaean, and Neoplatonic concepts of the human dead will requiring god's infused grace and faith to respond. [32]

Limited atonement

Augustine attempted numerous explanations of 1 Timothy 2:4. [33] The Pelagians assumed 1 Tim 2:4 taught that God gave the gift of faith to all persons, which Augustine easily refuted by changing wills/desires to "provides opportunity" (De spiritu et littera 37–38). In 414 CE Augustine's new theology has "all kinds/classes" definitively replacing "all" as absolute (ep. 149) and in 417 CE, Sermon 304.2 repeats this change of "all" to "all kinds". But only in AD 421 (Contra Julianum 4.8.42) did Augustine alter the text to read "all who are saved" meaning those who are saved are only saved by God's will, which he repeats the next year (Enchiridion 97, 103). People fail to be saved, "not because they do not will it, but because God does not" (Epistle 217.19). Despite their certain damnation, God makes other Christians desire their impossible salvation (De correptione et gratia 15, 47). Rist identifies as "the most pathetic passage." [34] By AD 429, Augustine quotes 1 Cor. 1.18 adding "such" to 1 Tim. 2:4, redefines all to mean as "all those elected," and implies an irresistible calling. Hwang noted, [33]

Then the radical shift occurred, brought about by the open and heated conflict with the Pelagians. 'Desires' took on absolute and efficacious qualities, and the meaning of 'all' was reduced to the predestined. 1 Tim. 2:4 should be understood, then, as meaning that God saves only the predestined. All others, apparently, do not even have a prayer.

Augustine attempted at least five answers over a decade of time trying to explain 1 Tim. 2:4 regarding the extent of Christ's redeeming sacrifice. [33] His major premise was the pagan idea that God receives everything he desires. Omnipotence (Stoic and Neoplatonic) is doing whatever the One desires, ensuring everything that occurs in the universe is exactly the Almighty's will and so must come to pass (Sermon 214.4). [35] He concluded that because God gets everything he wants, God does not desire all persons to be saved, otherwise every human would be saved. Chadwick concluded that because Augustine's God does not desire and so refuses to save all persons, Augustine elevated God's sovereignty as absolute and God's justice was trampled. [36] This also logically demanded that Christ could not have died for those who would not be saved. Therefore, Christ only died for the elect since God does not waste causation or energy. [37]

Irresistible grace

Augustine did not use the term irresistible grace, but wrote of God placing persons in circumstances God knew would cause them to make a certain choice or act a certain way. [38]

Perseverance of the Saints

One of his last works specifically addresses the Gift of Perseverance. In this work Augustine notes that persons cannot know whether or not they have received that gift from God. [39] Since Augustine accepted the doctrine that the Holy Spirit is received at water baptism producing regeneration (salvation), he had to explain why some regenerated babies continued in the faith while other baptized infants would fall away from the faith and even live immoral lives in debauchery. Both groups possessed the Holy Spirit, so how can one account for the difference? Augustine concluded that God must give a second gift of grace called perseverance. The gift of perseverance is only given to some baptized infants. [40] Without this second gift of grace a baptized Christian with the Holy Spirit will not persevere and ultimately will not be saved.

Double predestination

Double predestination, or the double decree, is the doctrine that God actively reprobates, or decrees damnation of some persons, as well as salvation for those whom he has elected. After 411 CE, Augustine made statements that teach this doctrine (e.g., Enchir. 100, De nat. orig. 1.14, 4.16, Serm.229S, Serm.260D.1, De civ. dei 14.26, 15.1, ep.204.2), but persons relying primarily on Augustine's writings prior to 412 CE are not clear whether he held to double predestination. [41] In ep.225 (from Prosper) and ep.226 (from Hilary of Gaul), both men complained that fellow Christians did not want Augustine's dangerous new view of predestination and perseverance preached because it rejected the traditional view of election based upon God's foreknowledge, replacing it with a 'predestination' as "necessity based upon fate" (ep.225.3). Hilary complained, "But they do not want this perseverance to be preached if it means that it can neither be merited by prayer not lost by rebellion" (ep.226.4; cf. Persev.10). Persons who later taught that same double predestination they found within Augustine's writings, such as Gottschalk of Orbais and the Jansenists, were condemned by the church. [42] [43]

During the Protestant Reformation, John Calvin also held double predestinarian views. [44] [45] John Calvin states: "By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death." [46]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arminianism</span> Protestant theological movement

Arminianism is a movement of Protestantism initiated in the early 17th century, based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius and his historic supporters known as Remonstrants. Dutch Arminianism was originally articulated in the Remonstrance (1610), a theological statement submitted to the States General of the Netherlands. This expressed an attempt to moderate the doctrines of Calvinism related to its interpretation of predestination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augustine of Hippo</span> Christian theologian and philosopher (354–430)

Augustine of Hippo, also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. His many important works include The City of God, On Christian Doctrine, and Confessions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reformed Christianity</span> Protestant denominational family

Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation, a schism in the Western Church. Today, it is largely represented by the Continental, Presbyterian, and Congregational traditions, as well as parts of the Anglican and Baptist traditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Predestination</span> Doctrine in Christian theology

Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul. Explanations of predestination often seek to address the paradox of free will, whereby God's omniscience seems incompatible with human free will. In this usage, predestination can be regarded as a form of religious determinism; and usually predeterminism, also known as theological determinism.

Pelagianism is a Christian theological position that holds that the fall did not taint human nature and that humans by divine grace have free will to achieve human perfection. Pelagius, an ascetic and philosopher from the British Isles, taught that God could not command believers to do the impossible, and therefore it must be possible to satisfy all divine commandments. He also taught that it was unjust to punish one person for the sins of another; therefore, infants are born blameless. Pelagius accepted no excuse for sinful behaviour and taught that all Christians, regardless of their station in life, should live unimpeachable, sinless lives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Total depravity</span> Protestant theological doctrine

Total depravity is a Protestant theological doctrine derived from the concept of original sin. It teaches that, as a consequence of the Fall, every person born into the world is enslaved to the service of sin as a result of their fallen nature and, apart from the efficacious (irresistible) or prevenient (enabling) grace of God, is completely unable to choose by themselves to follow God, refrain from evil, or accept the gift of salvation as it is offered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Predestination in Calvinism</span> Theological doctrine

Predestination is a doctrine in Calvinism dealing with the question of the control that God exercises over the world. In the words of the Westminster Confession of Faith, God "freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass." The second use of the word "predestination" applies this to salvation, and refers to the belief that God appointed the eternal destiny of some to salvation by grace, while leaving the remainder to receive eternal damnation for all their sins, even their original sin. The former is called "unconditional election", and the latter "reprobation". In Calvinism, some people are predestined and effectually called in due time to faith by God, all others are reprobated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grace in Christianity</span> Concept in Christianity

In Western Christian theology, grace is created by God who gives it as help to one because God desires one to have it, not necessarily because of anything one has done to earn it. It is understood by Western Christians to be a spontaneous gift from God to people – "generous, free and totally unexpected and undeserved" – that takes the form of divine favor, love, clemency, and a share in the divine life of God. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, grace is the uncreated Energies of God. Among Eastern Christians generally, grace is considered to be the partaking of the Divine Nature described in 2 Peter 1:4 and grace is the working of God himself, not a created substance of any kind that can be treated like a commodity.

Semi-Pelagianism is a Christian theological and soteriological school of thought about the role of free will in salvation. In semipelagian thought, a distinction is made between the beginning of faith and the increase of faith. Semi-Pelagian thought teaches that the latter half – growing in faith – is the work of God, while the beginning of faith is an act of free will, with grace supervening only later. Semi-Pelagianism in its original form was developed as a compromise between Pelagianism and the teaching of Church Fathers such as Saint Augustine. Adherents to Pelagianism hold that people are born untainted by sin and do not need salvation unless they choose to sin, a belief which had been dismissed as heresy. In contrast, Augustine taught that people cannot come to God without the grace of God. Like pelagianism, semipelegianism was labeled heresy by the Western Church at the Second Council of Orange in 529.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unconditional election</span> Calvinist doctrine

Unconditional election is a Calvinist doctrine relating to predestination that describes the actions and motives of God prior to his creation of the world, when he predestined some people to receive salvation, the elect, and the rest he left to continue in their sins and receive the just punishment, eternal damnation, for their transgressions of God's law as outlined in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. God made these choices according to his own purposes apart from any conditions or qualities related to those persons.

Prevenient grace is a Christian theological concept that refers to the grace of God in a person's life which precedes and prepares to conversion. The concept was first developed by Augustine of Hippo (354–430), was affirmed by the Second Council of Orange (529) and has become part of Catholic theology. It is also present in Reformed theology, through the form of an effectual calling leading some individuals irresistibly to salvation. It is also in Arminian theology, according to which it is dispensed universally in order to enable people to respond to the offer of salvation, though it does not ensure personal acceptance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assurance (theology)</span> Protestant Christian doctrine

As a general term in theological use, assurance refers to a believer's confidence in God, God's response to prayer, and the hope of eternal salvation. In Protestant Christian doctrine, the term "assurance", also known as the Witness of the Spirit, affirms that the inner witness of the Holy Spirit allows the Christian disciple to know that they are justified. Based on the writings of St. Augustine of Hippo, assurance was historically an important doctrine in Lutheranism and Calvinism, and remains a distinguishing doctrine of Methodism and Quakerism, although there are differences among these Christian traditions. Hymns that celebrate the witness of the Holy Spirit, such as "Blessed Assurance" are sung in Christian liturgies to celebrate the belief in assurance.

Eternal security, also known as "once saved, always saved" is the belief providing Christian believers with absolute assurance throughout their lives of their inevitable salvation. The term has been also used as a synonym for doctrines that offer theoretical security to the elect, although not guaranteeing absolute assurance to all believers. It typically aligns with forms of theological determinism, whether fully or partially. Initially embraced in Calvinist circles, eternal security has become a defining doctrine of the Southern Baptist traditionalism. It is also upheld by groups influenced by Plymouth Brethren theology, as well as in the Free Grace and "Hyper-Grace" theological movements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Calvinist–Arminian debate</span> Christian theological debate

The history of the Calvinist–Arminian debate begins in early 17th century in the Netherlands with a Christian theological dispute between the followers of John Calvin and Jacobus Arminius, and continues today among some Protestants, particularly evangelicals. The debate centers around soteriology, or the study of salvation, and includes disputes about total depravity, predestination, and atonement. While the debate was given its Calvinist–Arminian form in the 17th century, issues central to the debate have been discussed in Christianity in some form since Augustine of Hippo's disputes with the Pelagians in the 5th century.

Free will in theology is an important part of the debate on free will in general. Religions vary greatly in their response to the standard argument against free will and thus might appeal to any number of responses to the paradox of free will, the claim that omniscience and free will are incompatible.

Baptismal regeneration is the name given to doctrines held by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican churches, and other Protestant denominations which maintain that salvation is intimately linked to the act of baptism, without necessarily holding that salvation is impossible apart from it. Etymologically, the term means "being born again" "through baptism" (baptismal). Etymology concerns the origins and root meanings of words, but these "continually change their meaning, ... sometimes moving out of any recognisable contact with their origin ... It is nowadays generally agreed that current usage determines meaning." While for Reformed theologian Louis Berkhof, "regeneration" and "new birth" are synonymous, Herbert Lockyer treats the two terms as different in meaning in one publication, but in another states that baptism signifies regeneration.

The Second Council of Orange was held in 529 at Orange, which was then part of the Ostrogothic Kingdom. It affirmed much of the theology of Augustine of Hippo and synergism, and made numerous proclamations against what later would come to be known as semi-Pelagian doctrine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augustinianism</span> Philosophical and theological system

Augustinianism is the philosophical and theological system of Augustine of Hippo and its subsequent development by other thinkers, notably Boethius, Anselm of Canterbury and Bonaventure. Among Augustine's most important works are The City of God, De doctrina Christiana, and Confessions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gift of perseverance</span> Ancient Christian doctrine

The Gift of perseverance is the doctrine of Augustine of Hippo that persevering in the faith is a gift given by God, but a person can never know if they have the gift. According to Augustine, without having the gift of perseverance a person is damned, even if he seems to have been elected by grace. Augustine himself also believed that Cyprian held a similar view about perseverance being a work of God, and thus foreshadowing the Augustinian view. Some Calvinists argue that the Augustinian view foreshadows the Calvinist doctrine of perseverance of the saints.

Predestination in Catholicism is the Catholic Church's teachings on predestination and Catholic saints' views on it. The church believes that predestination is not based on anything external to God - for example, the grace of baptism is not merited but given freely to those who receive baptism - since predestination was formulated before the foundation of the world. Predestination to eternal life, deification, divine filiation, and heaven encompasses all of mankind, for God has assumed man to his divinity by becoming man. Since man is a microcosm of creation, all of creation shares in man's predestination: it belongs to everyone, it is destined for renewal on Judgment Day, and it is being guided to its destiny by Divine Providence.

References

  1. ↑ Warfield, Benjamin B. (1956). Craig, Samuel G. (ed.). Calvin and Augustine . Philadelphia, PA: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co. p.  22.
  2. ↑ Helm, Paul (2001). "The Augustinian-Calvinist View". In Bielby, James; Eddy, Paul (eds.). Divine Foreknowledge: Four Views. Downers Grove, IL: IVP. pp. 161–189.
  3. ↑ Calvin, John. A Treatise on the Eternal Predestination of God. in Calvin, John (1987). Calvin's Calvinism . Translated by Henry Cole. Grandville, MI: Reformed Free Publishing Association. p.  38.
  4. ↑ McMahon 2012, pp. 7–9.
  5. ↑ Cary, Phillip (2008). Inner Grace: Augustine in the Traditions of Plato and Paul . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp.  122–124.
  6. ↑ Edwin, Palmar (1996). The Five Points of Calvinism. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
  7. ↑ O'Donnell, James (2005). Augustine: A New Biography. New York, NY: HarperCollins. pp. 45, 48.
  8. ↑ Chadwick, Henry (1986). Augustine: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 14.
  9. ↑ McIntire, C.T. (2005). "Free Will and Predestination: Christian Concepts". In Jones, Lindsay (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. 5 (2 ed.). Farmington Hills, MI: Macmillan Reference USA. pp. 3206–3209.
  10. ↑ Chadwick, Henry (1966). Early Christian Thought and the Classical Tradition. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. p. 9.
  11. ↑ Chadwick, Henry (1983). "Freedom and Necessity in Early Christian Thought About God". In Tracy, David; Lash, Nicholas (eds.). Cosmology and Theology. Edinburgh: T and T Clark. pp. 8–13.
  12. ↑ Wilson, Kenneth (2018). Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will: A Comprehensive Methodology. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. pp. 41–94.
  13. ↑ Hanegraaf, Wouter J., ed. (2005). "Manichaeism". Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism. Vol. 2. Leiden: Brill. pp. 757–765.
  14. ↑ Bonner, Gerald (1999). "Augustine, the Bible and the Pelagians". In Bright, Pamela (ed.). Augustine and the Bible. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. pp. 227–243.
  15. ↑ Schaff, Philip (1867). History of the Christian Church. Vol. 3 (repr. 2002 ed.). New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 789, 835.
  16. ↑ "CHURCH FATHERS: Against Two Letters of the Pelagians, Book II (Augustine)". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 2021-11-30.
  17. ↑ Tertullian. De bapt. p. 18.
  18. ↑ Rees, Brinley (1988). Pelagius: A Reluctant Heretic. Woodridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press. p. 27.
  19. ↑ Frend, William (1955). "Doctrine of man in the early church: an historical approach". Modern Churchman. 45 (3): 216–231.
  20. ↑ Miller, Mary (1964). Rufini Presbyteri: Liber de Fide. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America. pp. 1–13.
  21. ↑ Augustine. "3". De pecc. merit. pp. 7–15.
  22. ↑ Blowers, Paul (1999). "Original Sin". Encyclopedia of Early Christianity (2 ed.). New York, NY: Garland Publishing. pp. 839–840.
  23. ↑ Chadwick, Henry (1965). "Justin Martyr's Defence of Christianity". Bulletin of the John Rylands Library. 47 (2): 275–297. doi:10.7227/BJRL.47.2.3.
  24. ↑ Augustine. De providentia. pp. 1.12–25.
  25. ↑ Augustine. "1.29–30". De pecc.mer.
  26. ↑ Augustine. "1.29–30". De pecc.mer.,Augustine. "31". De persev.,Augustine. "44". De predest.,Augustine. "294.7". Serm.
  27. ↑ Hill, Edmund O.P. (1994). "Sermons III/8, Sermon 294". The Works of Saint Augustine: A New Translation for the 21st Century. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press. pp. 184, 196.
  28. ↑ Oort, Johannes van (2006). "Augustine and Manichaeism: New Discoveries, New Perspectives" (PDF). Verbum et Ecclesia. 27 (2): 710–728. doi:10.4102/VE.V27I2.172. S2CID   170573550. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-04-25.
  29. ↑ Chadwick, Henry (1983). "Freedom and Necessity in Early Christian Thought About God". In Tracy, David; Lash, Nicholas (eds.). Cosmology and Theology. Edinburgh: T and T Clark. pp. 8–13.
  30. ↑ Chadwick, Henry. "Christian Platonism in Origen and Augustine". In Chadwick, Henry (ed.). Heresy and Orthodoxy in the Early Church. Aldershot, UK: Variorum. pp. 229–230.
  31. ↑ Augustine. "2.6". De pecc. merit. and Augustine. "54–59". De spir. et litt.
  32. ↑ Cross, F. L.; Livingstone, Elizabeth A., eds. (2005). The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 129.
  33. 1 2 3 Hwang, Alexander (2006). "Augustine's Various Interpretations of 1 Tim. 2:4". Studia Patristica. 43: 137–142.
  34. ↑ Rist, John (1972). "Augustine on Free Will and Predestination". In Markus, Robert (ed.). Augustine: A Collection of Critical Essays. New York: Doubleday. p. 239.
  35. ↑ Augustine. "2". Symb.cat. Facit quidquid vult: ipsa est omnipotentia. Facit quidquid bene vult, quidquid juste vult: quidquid autem male fit, non vult. Nemo resistit omnipotenti, ut non quod vult faciat.
  36. ↑ Chadwick, Henry (1983). "Freedom and Necessity in Early Christian Thought About God". In Tracy, David and Nicholas Lash (ed.). Cosmology and Theology. Edinburgh: T and T Clark. pp. 8–13.
  37. ↑ Ogliari, Donato (2003). Gratia et Certamen: The Relationship between Grace and Free Will in the Discussion of Augustine with the so-called Semipelagians. Leuven: Leuven University Press.
  38. ↑ Wilson, Kenneth (2018). Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will: A Comprehensive Methodology. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. p. 203.
  39. ↑ Davis 1991, p. 213.
  40. ↑ Burnell 2005, pp. 85–86.
  41. ↑ James 1998, p. 102.
  42. ↑ Kolakowski, Leszek (1995). God Owes Us Nothing: A Brief Remark on Pascal's Religion and on the Spirit of Jansenism. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. pp. 3–33.
  43. ↑ Pelikan, Jaroslav (1987). "An Augustinian Dilemma: Augustine's Doctrine of Grace versus Augustine's Doctrine of the Church?". Augustinian Studies. 18: 1–28. doi:10.5840/augstudies1987186.
  44. ↑ James 1998, p. 30.
  45. ↑ Trueman 1994, p. 69.
  46. ↑ Calvin, John (1816). "21: Of the Eternal Election, by which God has predestined some to salvation, and others to destruction". Institutes of Christian Religion. Vol. 2 Book Third. P. H. Nicklin.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.