Br.

Mariano Franco-Méndez, OSB

September 15, 2020
Assignment on Augustine/Sin

Pelagianism is interested first and foremost in the theology of grace, as was St. Augustine.

This heresy rejects the doctrine of original sin, denying the same grace, which is understood

by Pelagius as an interior help, and which allows a salvific observance of the moral law.

According to Pelagianism, Adam's sin was uniquely his, and Adam's descendants did not

inherit a sinful nature passed down to them. Pelagius believed that God directly created

each human soul, and therefore each human soul began in innocence and was originally

free from sin, therefore any sin that is committed has to do with free will: “The good could

be done voluntarily only by a creature which was also capable of evil. Therefore the most

excellent creator decided to make us capable of both” (Patout, 42). We are not basically

bad, says the Pelagian heresy; we are basically good. Pelagius states: “The goodness of

humanity was indicated even before it was created when God prepared to form it in his

image and likeness” (Patout, 41).

For Augustine, without God's grace, man can do nothing good, but victory over sin is God's

gift, which helps free will in that continuous combat: “God’s grace and assitance by which

helps us to avoid sin are located either in nature and free choice or in the law and teaching”

(Patout, 62). St. Augustine, for his part, points out what others have already said. His

experience is having been dominated by sin and set free by the power of Christ's grace.

Thus, he expresses that forgiveness is only discovered when facing the grace of Christ: "A

person becomes a good tree when he receives God's grace. He does not change himself

from evil into good by his own resources; rather this is effected from him and through him
Br. Mariano Franco-Méndez, OSB
September 15, 2020
Assignment on Augustine/Sin
and in him who is always good. This same grace is necessary not only to make the tree

good: This same grace is necessary not only to make the tree good, but also to help it bear

good fruit" (Patout, 75).

Now pope emeritus Benedict XVI, argues that sin is more about breaking a rule. For him,

sin is living outside the truth and therefore renouncing it (Benedict XVI, 71), but above all

sin is wanting to be God and not a creature dependent on Him. Which is also mentioned by

Himes. He supports the idea that "Being creature is a scary bussines" (23) and the human

being lives in that constant stress and anxiety of knowing that he is dependent on someone

in order to live, of knowing himself as a limited being (Himes, 26).

Living outside the truth is then when man decides to act presumptuously on his own, to

compete with God, to try to occupy his position and then decide what is good and bad, to be

the master of life and death and therefore not see himself as dependent, much less

dependent on a being superior to him.