Semi-Pelagianism involved doctrines, upheld during the period from 427 to 529, that rejected the extreme views both of Pelagius and of Augustine in regards to the priority of divine grace and human will in the initial work of salvation. The label "Semi - Pelagian," however, is a relatively modern expression, which apparently appeared first in the Lutheran Formula of Concord (1577), and became associated with the theology of the Jesuit Luis Molina (1535 - 1600). The term, nevertheless, was not a happy choice, because the so-called Semi - Pelagians wanted to be anything but half - Pelagians. It would be more correct to call them Semi - Augustinians who, while rejecting the doctrines of Pelagius and respecting Augustine, were not willing to follow the ultimate consequences of his theology.
Church councils condemned Pelagianism in 418 and again in 431, but this rejection did not mean the acceptance of everything in the Augustinian system. Augustine's teaching on grace may be summarized as follows: Humanity shared in Adam's sin and therefore has become a massa damnationis from which no one can be extricated save by a special gift of divine grace that cannot be merited; yet God in his inscrutable wisdom chooses some to be saved and grants graces that will infallibly but freely lead them to salvation. The number of the elect is set and can be neither increased nor decreased. Nevertheless, Vitalis of Carthage and a community of monks at Hadrumetum, Africa (c. 427), contested these principles, asserting that they destroyed freedom of the will and all moral responsibility. They, in turn, affirmed that the unaided will performed the initial act of faith. In response Augustine produced Grace and Free Will and Rebuke and Grace, which contain a resume of his arguments against the Semi - Pelagians, and stress the necessary preparation of the will by prevenient grace.
The issue became heated in the fifth century when some monks in southern Gaul, led by John Cassian, Hilary of Arles, Vincent of Lerins, and Faustus of Riez, joined in the controversy. These men objected to a number of points in the Augustinian doctrine of sin and grace, namely, the assertion of the total bondage of the will, of the priority and irresistibility of grace, and of rigid predestination. They agreed with Augustine as to the seriousness of sin, yet they regarded his doctrine of predestination as new, therefore in conflict with tradition and dangerous because it makes all human efforts superfluous. In opposition to Augustinianism, Cassian taught that though a sickness is inherited through Adam's sin, human free will has not been entirely obliterated. Divine grace is indispensable for salvation, but it does not necessarily need to precede a free human choice, because, despite the weakness of human volition, the will takes the initiative toward God. In other words, divine grace and human free will must work together in salvation. In opposition to the stark predestinarianism of Augustine, Cassian held to the doctrine of God's universal will to save, and that predestination is simply divine foreknowledge.
After Augustine's death, the controversy became more heated; and Prosper of Aquitaine became his champion, replying to the Gallic monks, including Vincent of Lerins. Vincent incorrectly understood Augustine's doctrines of perseverance and predestination to mean that God's elect cannot sin. Nevertheless, he was not entirely wrong in recognizing the practical dangers inherent in Augustine's teaching on grace, and that this teaching deviated from Catholic tradition.
Prosper appealed to Rome on behalf of his master, and though Celestine I praised Augustine, he gave no specific approval to the bishop's teachings on grace and predestination. Hence, Semi - Pelagian beliefs continued to circulate in Gaul with Faustus of Riez as the outstanding spokesman. He condemned the heresy of Pelagianism, teaching instead that natural powers were not sufficient to attain salvation. The free will, while not extinct, was weak and could not be exercised for salvation without the aid of grace. Faustus, however, rejected the predestinarian conception of a divine monergism and taught that human will, by virtue of the freedom left in it, takes the beginning step toward God. Salvation, therefore, is accomplished by the cooperation of human and divine factors, and predestination is merely God's foreknowledge of what a person has freely decided. Grace, to Faustus, meant the divine illumination of human will, and not, as it did to Augustine, the regenerative power of grace in the heart.
The debate about Semi - Pelagianism continued well into the sixth century, when Caesarius of Arles convened the Synod of Orange (529). Here Caesarius succeeded in dogmatizing a number of principles against the Semi - Pelagians. In doing so, however, the synod did not accept Augustine's full doctrine of grace, especially not his concept of divine grace that works irresistibly in the predestinated. In 531, Boniface II approved the acts of this council, thus giving it ecumenical authority. Semi - Pelagianism, as a historical movement, subsequently declined, but the pivotal issue of Semi - Pelagianism, the priority of the human will over the grace of God in the initial work of salvation, did not die out.
R Kyle
(Elwell Evangelical Dictionary)
