Answer to the Pelagians 4

by Augustine of Hippo, Roland J. Teske

The four works printed in this volume reply to a series of problems which various Catholic monks of Africa and Gaul found with Augustine’s doctrine of grace and predestination. They do not deal directly with Pelagianism, but are clearly related to the anti-Pelagian works of Augustine in their discussions of the doctrines on grace and predestination. The monks who raised these questions, however, posed them as difficulties they faced in accepting these doctrines, not as an overt desire to contradict Augustine and the Church, as the heretics did.

The first two works, Grace and Free Choice and Rebuke and Grace, respond to problems at Hadrumetum where a group of monks thought that Augustine’s teaching on grace destroyed free choice and human merits and eliminated the possibility of anyone giving rebukes and exhortations.

The second two works, The Predestination of the Saints and The Gift of Perseverance, reply to the letters of Prosper of Aquitaine and Hilary. They reported to Augustine the objections of various persons in monastic groups in Gaul who held that the beginning of faith and the initiative for salvation came from the human will, not from God. These monks also rejected Augustine’s doctrine that divine predestination and the grace of final perseverance are utterly gratuitous gifts of God.

In his responses to the monks’ concerns, Augustine depends on Scripture to prove his points. He encourages his questioners to pray for understanding and to thank God for the understanding they have so far—which is surely a free gift of God, as are, he emphasizes, grace and eternal life.

Genres: Theology

264 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1990

About the author

Early church father and philosopher Saint Augustine served from 396 as the bishop of Hippo in present-day Algeria and through such writings as the autobiographical Confessions in 397 and the voluminous City of God from 413 to 426 profoundly influenced Christianity, argued against Manichaeism and Donatism, and helped to establish the doctrine of original sin.

An Augustinian follows the principles and doctrines of Saint Augustine.

People also know Aurelius Augustinus in English of Regius (Annaba). From the Africa province of the Roman Empire, people generally consider this Latin theologian of the greatest thinkers of all times. He very developed the west. According to Jerome, a contemporary, Augustine renewed "the ancient Faith."

The Neo-Platonism of Plotinus afterward heavily weighed his years. After conversion and his baptism in 387, Augustine developed his own approach to theology and accommodated a variety of methods and different perspectives. He believed in the indispensable grace to human freedom and framed the concept of just war. When the Western Roman Empire started to disintegrate from the material earth, Augustine developed the concept of the distinct Catholic spirituality in a book of the same name. He thought the medieval worldview. Augustine closely identified with the community that worshiped the Trinity. The Catholics and the Anglican communion revere this preeminent doctor. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider his due teaching on salvation and divine grace of the theology of the Reformation. The Eastern Orthodox also consider him. He carries the additional title of blessed. The Orthodox call him "Blessed Augustine" or "Saint Augustine the Blessed."

Santo Agostinho

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Read "On the Gift of Perseverance" for Modern Doctrine.