Pelagius and the sinfulness of infants in Augustine's thought

Articles in Press

Document Type : Scientific-research

Authors

1 Department of philosophy, University of Zanjan

2 PhD Candidate of Islamic Philosophy and Theology. University of Zanjan

3 Faculty member of Shahid Beheshti University

Abstract

In Augustine's thought, human nature is diseased due to the first sin, and this disease has made the human will incapable of salvation and doing good deeds, and therefore it needs an external factor to strengthen it, and that is grace. The result of Augustine's belief is that in the meantime, infants are sinful by physical birth. In the meantime, Pelagius believes that Augustine's approach leads to corruptions that harm the basic principles of Christianity: First, it deprives God of the attributes of justice and power, while the Bible makes God righteous. It counts and seeks the justification of man, and secondly, it causes an improper interpretation of grace, which challenges other inner areas of man and degrades him to a kind of inefficiency. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, Pelagius first introduced the human will as free, and in the next step, the human nature as pure, and explains them, and with an Arian approach, he first explains grace and confronts Augustine's interpretation of Paul. And Augustine's evidence from the Bible is also metaphorical, and as a result, he declares babies free from any sin. In this research, we intend to investigate this issue in a descriptive-analytical way and by referring to original sources.

Keywords

The Mirror of Knowledge

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 23 October 2024

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