Where John Calvin got his ideas - St. Augustine of Hippo

This is an essay that I wrote in my senior year of college. I got an A on it. He didn't like my conclusion, so I edited it some, but I wrote this because I was interested in the origins of the ideas that Calvin espoused. I found out that Calvin was completely unoriginal for coming up with the idea we call TULIP. read the essay and you'll see what I mean. 

Enjoy! 

​Jefferson Griffith 

​​4/2/2013

Augustine of Hippo changed the course of history when he made his arguments heralding his interpretation of the doctrines of original sin, predestination, and free will. In his answer and condemnation of the teachings of Pelagius, he makes the assumption that not only do we inherit original sin, but we inherit the guilt of that sin from Adam. It is because of God’s mercy that he chose the elect on whom to extend mercy. His arguments score him a victory over Pelagius and place his name in the history books as a defender of faith and the Doctor of Grace. 

Augustine grew up with a Christian mother and a pagan father in the late 4th century. They sent Augustine to the best pagan schools of the time where he learned a more philosophical way of thinking. He was taught that Christian philosophy was barbaric and to be avoided. He became affiliated with a religion that viewed their founder and leader, Mani, as the last, and greatest, prophet, much like Islam. This man was the last among prophets including Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus himself. They called themselves the Manichees or Manichaean after their founder. Even with this religion, Augustine disagreed with the status quo. He became dissatisfied with the sect’s view of good and evil. The Manichees thought that a good god and an evil god were continuously fighting one another and both are eternal. Augustine reasoned that if both are eternal, then both are indestructible; and if both are indestructible, then both are good; therefore, evil is good. This was completely illogical. Instead, he thought, evil must be a parasite on Good and that evil comes from us. It is simply the absence of good; therefore, there is no evil god, only a good God. Upon this conclusion, he becomes more interested in Christianity.

As the story goes, one night at his friend’s estate, he was struggling within himself. He was debating whether or not to become a Christian because he felt that he could not live the strict lifestyle that it demanded. While in his struggle, he heard a voice that said, “take up and read.” He picked up the Bible and opened it. It fell open to Romans 13 where he read, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” It was then that he decided to become a Christian. He withdrew to a monastery on a private estate. While there, he meditated, studied, and wrote rules for male and female monks. He grew a great reputation for himself and was eventually ordained as a priest by Bishop Valerian. When Bishop Valerian died, the post of Bishop was appointed to him. From this seat, he fought a theological battle against the teachings of Pelagius. To understand what Augustine was fighting, we must first understand what Pelagius was professing.

Pelagius bears hard on the Church at the time for simply being lazy and does not leave any room for excuses for not doing what God has commanded. The Church at the time had attributed their wickedness to the wickedness of human nature, but Pelagius says that the church at the time was willfully ignorant, and they continuously complained because of the “scornful sloth of [their] hearts” (Bettenson & Maunder 55)(Gonzalez 31). They complained that what “[God] has commanded is impossible” (Bettenson & Maunder 55). It is clear that at the time, people were doubting and feeling helpless to stop sinning. They thought it was impossible. Pelagius argues that the flesh does fight against the spirit, but righteous living is not impossible, and “[God] will not condemn a man for what he could not help” (Bettenson & Maunder 55). Thus, Adam’s sin could not be impugned upon all of mankind, making it impossible to serve him unless God’s judgment is absurd and unjust (Gonzalez 31).

Pelagius felt that Augustine’s teachings were a threat to man’s free will and argues this vehemently (Gonzalez 30). He says that Free will is a gift from God that has been given to everybody. It consists of three parts; posse, velle, and esse. Posse is the ability to sin or not to sin. It is given to us through God, “who has conferred it on his creatures” (Bettenson & Maunder 56).Velle is volition or the ability and drive to exercise our free will to do what is good. As Gonzalez puts it, “we each sin for ourselves out of our own free will.” (32) This did not leave grace out of the picture. Pelagius believed in a “natural grace” that we are already born with that allows us to have free will. God has already extended his grace by giving us the possibility to do what is good, but it is man’s will that will drive him to realize this. No other form of grace, then, is responsible for giving one the ability to do well. By doing well you can reach realization, actualization, or esse. In other words, by exercising our will to do what is good, we bring glory to the God who gave us the posse and velle to achieve esse. 

Adam committed the original sin. The main thing that Pelagius and Augustine debate is whether or not this sin is inherited, making all of mankind guilty. According to Pelagius, “everything good and everything evil… is done by us, not born in us” (Bettenson & Maunder56). When we are born, we have a capacity for both good and evil, but we have a will and can decide whether we want to use it for good or for evil. Contrary to what Augustine will uphold, Pelagius argued that should an infant die without being baptized, he would not be condemned but would see heaven. Among other things, Pelagius is also said to believe that Adam was created mortal and would have died whether or not he sinned, and his sin affected him and only him(Bettenson & Maunder 57).

Augustine answered sharply opposite of Pelagius, continually insisting that his view does not limit man’s free will because free will makes us human. His argument starts in the Garden of Eden. He says that in the garden, Adam and Eve had posse non peccare, the ability not to sin thanks to their will, given by God. Augustine further argued that without man’s will, he would not be able to do what is good. Mankind’s will, however, also allowed him to sin, so Augustine did not surmise that mankind could not sin, but that they could avoid it thanks to the help of God.That is, that without divine assistance from God, mankind would be unable to not sin. Without God’s assistance, “their will itself would fail” (Bettenson & Maunder 59).  Unfortunately for mankind, Adam and Eve used their free will and pride to take of the forbidden fruit and fall. After this, Augustine believed that they had nonposse non peccare, the inability not to sin and that they lost their privilege of posse non mori, the ability not to die.

Augustine assumes then that after the fall of man, once a man is born, that man will continually sin, even when he is doing a good deed, because he is unable not to sin. Gonzalez says, “he had lost the gift of grace which enabled him not to sin and was free only to sin.” (44) Man, then, has freedom to sin, but not freedom not to sin. In Augustine’s arguments, a man cannot choose to do right without divine assistance for “if a man is deprived of divine assistance… he will in no wise be firm and solid in righteousness” (Bettenson & Maunder 57).So, then, how is man supposed to turn from his sin and do that which is good? Augustine affirms that we cannot do it by ourselves (Gonzalez 46). Only with divine assistance, or grace, can a man make that first step, baptism, toward doing what is good. After this, every act that we do that is good is a result of grace. If it were only of our own doing, why would Jesus have prayed “lead us not into temptation”? Augustine concludes that God must give us assistance and guide our footsteps, but we still maintain our free will because now we not only have the ability to sin (posse peccare), but we add to that the ability not to sin (posse non peccare). 

To Augustine, this grace that God imparted was irresistible. One cannot merit grace. When God chooses to impart his grace on a person, that person’s will is molded to desire to do right; therefore, he keeps his free will but no longer wills to do wrong. We must ask then, if we cannot merit this grace, then who does God impart his grace upon (Gonzalez 47)? Predestination is the belief that God, before the foundation of the world predestined who was going to be given this “divine assistance” and be led to the kingdom of God. Augustine calls this a “planning of God’s kindness” (Bettenson & Maunder 60). Because God had foresight to see into the future he chose to extend mercy on those who he chooses. These are chosen and pulled out from the masses of the damned who, not by any of God’s doing, have chosen the life of sin and will inherit damnation. God has simply chosen not to give some “a gift of understanding” (Bettenson & Maunder 60). Augustine uses Isaiah 6:10 and John 12:40 to give an example of how God chooses some and hardens the hearts of those who have not been predestined to receive God’s grace. Augustine points out that when Jesus was preaching to the Jews, they turned away from the message. This was because God “hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts that they should not see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and be converted” (Bettenson & Maunder 60). Augustine gives a disclaimer in making this argument. He does not surmise to know why this is the way it is. He describes God whose “judgments are inscrutable and whose ways are past finding out,” referring to Romans 11:33 (Bettenson & Maunder 60). The number of the elect who are selected is set, and they will be gifted with eternal life in heaven. 

Heaven, according to Augustine, will be a place where the elect will go where there will benon posse peccare, the inability to sin. Without sin there can be no death, so in heaven those who were once human will now have non posse mori, the inability to die. The inability to sin is not limiting the will of man, because God cannot sin, and it would be blasphemous to say that God is not completely free. Rather, Augustine represents this as the ultimate freedom. 

Pelagius’s teachings were eventually declared to be heretical.  Augustine won the battle, possibly because he argued from a seat of authority or because he had the most compelling argument. Augustine’s teachings would make its way back to Rome, where, unsurprisingly, not everyone readily agreed. His teachings came under attack from a number of theologians of the time. John Cassian argued that God’s grace acted upon the will of man once he sees in that man the beginning of a good will, leading him to be baptized. Vincent of Lerins said that we should uphold that which “has been believed always, by all, and in every place”; anything that does not fit that requirement is an innovation and therefore, false.  (Gonzalez 59). Others stood up against Augustine. Semi-Pelagians, made the majority of resistance, particularly in southern France. Prosper of Aquitane defended Augustine, but rejected the idea of predestination. Eventually, the Catholic Church as we know rejected the idea of predestination as Augustine put it and still does to this day. Even still, it is difficult to find anything negative about Augustine of Hippo. The Catholic Church still respects him highly as a saint and calls him “the Doctor of Grace” when speaking of him. We know from history that the teachings of Augustus took root again during the protestant reformation with John Calvin and other reformers. Calvin took Augustine’s teachings and put them in front of an audience that considered Calvin’s version of predestination much more palatable than the rigorous set of restrictions and penances of the Catholic Church. Because of Calvin and other reformers, Augustine’s teachings still permeate, and in some cases dominate, the creeds of many protestant Christian faiths.

Works Cited: 

Bettenson, Henry Scowcroft., and Chris Maunder. Documents of the Christian Church. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.

Gonzalez, Justo L. A History of Christian Thought. Vol. 2.Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1971. Print.