Previously, in part one and part two, we explored the ancient heresy of Gnosticism and saw how it overlaps with our current Western worldview, especially in treating the inner/spiritual world as inherently good and the outer/physical world as inherently evil.

In this article, we are moving on to the heresy of Pelagianism. Here in part three specifically, I will be giving more background to the heresy of Pelagianism and the Pelagian worldview, and then I will examine how the ideas presented overlap with the modern Western worldview.

The Teachings of Pelagius

Let’s set the stage. It’s the early fifth century and, despite political turmoil and a weakened state, the Roman Empire was still a powerful entity. Christianity, at this point—unlike the second century, which we explored with Gnosticism—is a legal religion and has been so for nearly one hundred years.

This time period posed a strange situation for the church and its leaders, because despite Christianity being legal and popular, the Roman Empire was prolifically immoral, politically and sexually. One Christian leader at this time was a British monk named Pelagius, who was especially appalled by the moral state of Rome, so he sought to address this problem biblically and theologically. His teaching can be essentially summarized in three main ideas:

1. No Original Sin: Pelagius denied original sin and the sinful nature of humanity. He taught that Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit did not affect their state; consequently, the fall has no lasting effect on humanity. Therefore, all people have the same standing as Adam and Eve in the garden.
2. Free will: If there is no sin nature inclining humanity to sin, then this means that our wills are as “free” as they can be (The word free is in quotation marks for reasons I will address in the next article). Pelagius taught that God desired man to be totally free to choose between good and evil. This means that God’s grace is not necessary in helping guide the human will, because it would mean that the human will is relying on something other than itself (meaning it is not totally “free”). Therefore, to avoid sin, people must simply choose to stop sinning. This view of free will also led Pelagius to teach that sinless perfection is attainable and expected of us by God, and achievable without his grace.
3. Sin is outside: For Pelagius, if sin is not an internal reality, then it was instead an external one. Adam’s sin makes him a bad example, but Adam’s children followed his example, which made much of the world’s cultures and habits inherently sinful. Sin, then, is following the evil patterns of the world which Adam and his descendants helped create. To escape these sinful patterns, humanity must simply use its free will to stop sinning and follow the example of Jesus.

The Church’s Condemnation of Pelagianism

Pelagius and his followers’ thoughts culminated in a worldview characterized by a few core ideas. They emphasized human autonomy and freedom as far as they could, which makes these things the primary focus and driver of life.

They also assumed that human nature is inherently good, since this is the underlying concept that makes human free will reliable and trustworthy. These ideas combined into a view where Jesus was not a savior but rather a moral teacher to follow, since humans with their inherent goodness and free will can reject sin without God’s grace through Jesus.

These combined ideas that Pelagius taught were recognized as undermining core concepts of the Christian faith and were consequently condemned as heretical. Even after Pelagius died and people adopted milder forms of his ideas, the church still found it worth addressing even these milder forms of Pelagianism, doubling down on their condemnation of his thoughts.

So clearly, the church at large was very concerned by his theology, as they condemned them multiple times over the span of close to one hundred years. St. Augustine, who is arguably the most influential theologian in church history, led this charge against Pelagius and argued for the biblical notion that Adam and Eve’s fall causes humanity to have original sin and a sinful nature; this is, on paper, the standard orthodox view in Protestantism and Catholicism.

The Modern Spirit of Pelagius

Pelagius truly exemplifies a strikingly modern spirit in ancient times, and if he were born in modernity, he probably would have been regarded as a leading theologian and philosopher. His confidence in human ability, emphasis on free will, and strongly contrarian spirit would make him fit perfectly with many during the Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment periods.

In fact, he has even found himself a home in some circles today. Another way he is strikingly modern, outside of his ideas themselves, is the way he re-interpreted scripture to fit his moment. Pelagius sought to address a worthy problem of immorality.

Now, does scripture address moral living? Yes. But it does so on its own terms, so when Pelagius re-interpreted scripture to make it primarily a document about morality, then he was reading scripture on his own terms rather than its own terms. This is a tendency we have today that we must also be extremely careful to avoid.

With this background, my next article will dive deeper into Pelagius’ overlap with the modern Western worldview.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on the Institute for Faith & Culture website and has been shared with permission.