Soon after the resurrection of Jesus,
the church found itself deeply entangled itself in
defining who Jesus was. Was he God or merely a man
annointed for a purpose? These Christological questions
took the church over four centuaries to settle in the
three synods of Nicea, Constantinople and Ephesus. Then
came the great schism which seperated the fellowship
between the East and the West. But the two faced
different problems in their own fields. Though both east
and west held the basic tenents of the fallen state of
man and his need for salvation West concentrated on the
depravity of man and the need of grace for salvation
while the East stressed on the Free will of man. These
were varously stressed depending on the controvesey of
the situation in both cases.
Pelagius Morgan was a British monk
who came to the scene as a very quite soft spoken
ascetic. He saw the depravity of the people of God who
went on living in sin in the name of human nature and
God’s unconditional grace. Pelagius was the product of
the renaisance. The greatest product of the period of
Newton and the mechanical world view. This is reflected
in the systems of thought of the period from Pelagius to
Calvin. We should also look at the historical point when
Pelegianism broke out. The Greek Eastern Fathers
provided the theological leadership at that time and
Pelegian thought followed that trend. In the west
Manichaean doctrine emphasized the evil character of
Matter. Pelagius directed his polemic and asserted that
matter is not evil and that man hast free will to stand
against the evil.
According to Pelagius, God had
endowed His creature with a capacity (possibilitas) or
ability (posse) for action, and it was for him to use
it. Man was thus a machine, which, just because it was
well made, needed no Divine interference for its right
working. God made a perfect machine and wound up the
spring and it should work perfectly if man wants it.
"We accuse God of a twofold
ignorance,-that He does not seem to know what He has
made, nor what He has commanded,-as if forgetting the
human weakness of which He is Himself the Author, He has
imposed laws on man which He cannot endure."
"Whether we will, or whether we will
not, we have the capacity of not sinning." "I say, that
man is able to be without sin, and that he is able to
keep the commandments of God;"
It therefore follows that :
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Man can live righteously without
sin and historically that might have been many
saints even before Christ. Bible decalres many as
righteous. (Gen 6:9; 2 Pe 2:8)
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If man can live without sinning
then sin is not something we inherited. There is no
original sin. "Man is always able both to sin and
not to sin, we have free will." Adam’s sin was his
own personal sin for which he paid the price. God
will not justly impute that punishment to his
progeny. God do assert and elaborates this point in
Ezekiel chapter 18. "As we are procreated without
virtue, so also without vice, Nothing that is good
and evil, on account of which we are either
praiseworthy or blameworthy, is born with us."
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Pelagian "grace, is the endowment
of man with free will, and the revelation of the law
and the teaching of the gospel for showing the way
for correction and reproof, and, ultimately in the
forgiveness of past sins in Christ and his example
through righteous life.
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Example of Adam and the Power of
Habit are the reasons for the universal sin. The
whole human history is the progression in the
development of human sin and a progressive grace of
God in empowering man with power to live holy.
Initally man was able to live holy lives. But poor
examples of the fathers as is seen in Adam, Cain and
others caused habit of sinning deep into community
life that God’s grace appeared in the giving of the
Law. Law was a guide. It was still man’s choice to
will or not to will his life as he wished. As time
went on law became insufficient and god gave the
supreme example of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice
for the forgiveness of sin committed in the past.
The continued onus still remained with the person.
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Death then cannot be a
punishement of sin, since with the exception of the
few all men died. Physical death belonged to the
very nature of man, and that Adam would have died
even if he had not sinned.The whole human race does
not die on account the fall of Adam, nor, rise again
on account of the resurrection of Christ. Each
person will have to work out their own salvation.
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New-born children are in that
state in which Adam was before his sin and hence
infants, even though not baptized, have eternal life
Thus we have reason to praise God for
five gifts:.
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For the creature that God had
made, the sinless perfection of human nature as
opposed to the doctrine of original sin
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For the marriage that He had
instituted, the purity and holiness of marriage and
the sexual appetites, as opposed to the doctrine of
the transmission of sin
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For the law that He had given,
which is able to brign men to the Kingdom of God.
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For the free will given to man,
as opposed to divine intervention.
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For the saints who had given us
their examples, as opposed to the universal
sinfulness of man.
The history of Pelagian controversey
in itself is typical of most other controverseys the
west saw. Pelegius himself was a very upright man of
character and with extensive biblical scholarship. He
came to Rome and preached the gospel. He stood against
the corruptions of Rome and Roman gentry. He presented
an argument for righteous living in his sermons. We
should be aware of the actual character of Pelagius and
understand that he was presenting a different point of
view at a time when doctrines were not properly defined.
In Rome Coelestius a young advovcate found the teachings
of Pelagius intriguing and took up the stand for it and
brought it before the public. The church was sure to
reject it. In AD 411 when Rome fell to the Gothic Chief
Alaric they left for Alexandia. Coelstius sought for
ordination in Africa which was opposed by a Milanese
deacon Paulinus and was hence rejected by the synod
under Bishop Aurelius. He thereby went over to Ephesus
and got himself ordained. Pelagius went over to
Palestine and lived there until he was called by the
dicesan synod under John of Jerusalem. Because of the
difficulties in language and communication the matter
was referred to the Bishop of Rome. Two Gallic bishops
viz., Heros and Lazarus took up the case and presented
it before the Metropolitan of Eulogius of Casesarea. A
synod of fouteen bishops met in Eulogius ( Diospolis) in
415 . Pelagius with his power of persuation and
ingenuity extricated himself from the charges. On this
triumph he published a work entitled "In Defence of Free
Will".
Julian of Eclanum joined him in Italy.This
spurred off another surge of rebuttals and two synods –
one in Carthage and one in Mila condemned it as heresy
and forwarded it to Rome for their part of condmenation.
Pope Innocent took up the charges and condemned Pelagius
as a heretic in 417. Pelegius died soon after . But
Coelestius was able to persuade the new Bishop of
Praylus to his side who declared Coelestius as of
universal faith and rebuked the Africans for hasty
decision. A series of reconsiderations were made but in
418 an Imperial decree made both Pelegius and all his
associates as heretics and banished them from Rome,
followed by swift synod in Carthage which affirmed the
declaration.
The African synod made the following
assertions:
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Physical death is not a necessity
of nature, and is the result of Adam's sin. Children
born in Adamic race carry this original sin and is
expiated by the laver of regeneration. The gift of
eternal life is the entry into the Kingdom of
Heaven.
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Man can live sinless only by the
help of grace.
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All mankind is sinful including
the apsotles and saints.
All those who supported the idea were
deposed and exiled all over the churhes including in the
churches of the east.
But Pelagianism is not delegated to
rubish bin yet. It is a part of Humanism and resurrected
throughout history and is still in power. It is
therefore a legitimate one end of the spectrum of
thought in Christianity which borders with other
religions. Even though Pelegius was condemned as a
heretic, his contribution to the church life and to the
doctrines could not be under estimated. We would have
been poorer without Pelegius.
Pelegianism is actually the teaching
of Islam in its essence. In Islam man is the creature
made mortal and subservient to law. Adam sinned and he
made a penitance and he was forgiven by God. Each child
is born perfect and is judged only by what the does in
his life. He is expected to live a righteous life under
the law by abiding by it. According to Islam all
partirachs lived a sinless life and so did Joseph, Mary
and Jesus and all the prophets from the beginning, from
Adam to Mohammed.
In Hinduism on the other hand Man is
God himself. God wanted experience the variety of joys
and sorrows and entered as creation and into it as
consciousness. Every individual is capable of attaining
this brahman consciousness. It is only the ignorance of
this real self because of the involvement in daily life
that causes sorrow and suferring. There is no such thing
as death. Caonsciousness is eternal and will change
their medium by changing forms and bodies. Change and
cycles of birth and death are part of the nature.
Exaltation of man is the essence of
humanism. Man is ultimately the measure of everything.
Remove God hmself from the equation – and we have no
complete knowledge of Him anyway – and we arrive at the
Rational Humanism and Atheism.
Tthus in the spectrum of human
Philosophies Pelegianism is the boundary of Christian
thinking verging on to denial of God.
