The Human Predicament

The following is a slight adaptation of David Steinmetz description of Luther's understanding of the hideness of God. He writes, "The fundamental human predicament is unbelief. Men and women will not put their ultimate trust in God, will not receive their lives as a gift from God, but place their ultimate trust in themselves, in their world, in created reality. Human nature is proud, and human beings must be tackled in the depths of their pride. Human pride is broken down by the hidden revelation of God which always contradicts human expectations. A patient in a hospital has an immediate perception of his illness. He knows without waiting for a diagnosis from his physician that he is running a fever, that he is suffering from nausea and headaches, that his joints are stiff, and that certain sudden motions give him sharp pains in his arms. What he cannot tell from experiencing the symptoms of his illness is whether he is getting wore or is on the mend. The physician, however, is in a position to make a dispassionate judgment about the real condition of the patient. Suppose the doctors tells you that you are on the mend. you can, of course, put your faith in your symptoms and assume that the doctor is trying to keep from you the cruel truth that your illness is terminal. Assessing the empirical evidence with your own reason and common sense, no other conclusion is possible. Or you can, against the evidence of your sense and the pessimistic conclusions of your intellect, trust the word of your physician and assess your situation from his perspective. The fact of your beginning recovery is hidden under the contrary appearance of your virulent fever. you can grasp it now by closing your eyes to your symptoms and opening your ears to the word of your physician, who contradicts by his prognosis your immediate experience of pain."

On the reception of Grace

The Pelagian controversy set the parameters for discussing salvation in the church especially in the West. Augustine’s later work demonstrates how the discussion of election shifted from Pelagius’ views to the implications of Augustine’s. His treatise On the Gift of Perseverance provides an example as he discusses what he understands the doctrine of election to entail. Augustine wrote this treaty late in his life between 427 AD and 429 AD. By this late date the Pelagian controversy “proper” had ended. In this work, Augustine responds to the teaching of John Cassian. Cassian had come from the East to establish a monastery in Marseilles.
The specific reason for this treatise is to respond to some questions raised by some of the brothers of a monastery in Hadrumetum. A copy of one’ of Augustine’s anti-Pelagian letters had been sent to the monastery. This letter had caused quite a stir. You may recall from my previous post the Pelagian distinction between natural and supernatural grace. When one makes good use of natural grace then one is given supernatural grace. Augustine makes use of what would have been a familiar image in that day the death of newborn babies. Consider the situation of two infants both of whom die shortly after birth. One receives baptism. One does not. For Augustine this “hypothetical” epitomizes the Christian understanding of grace. The baptized child received grace while the other did not. This he argued was not the result of foreseen merits but due to the inscrutable action of God. This example was not universally well received in Hadrumetum. Some argued that the grace of God cooperated with a person’s will. Others followed Augustine’s argument, but they contended based on the logical flow of the argument that believers should not exhort one another to good actions, rather they should simply pray as any merit would be the gift of God. So you have some in the monastery who argue that Augustine is wrong the grace of God is not completely without human response, there are others who agree with Augustine and then take this to mean they should not exhort others to acts of service because if they are going to act it will because God has determined for them to act.
John Cassian proposed that Augustine’s understanding of grace was incompatible with monasticism. He understood grace to be offered to everyone. However this grace cannot enter a human soul because of the passions. Asceticism aided the cutting away of the passions to enable the reception of grace. Cassian maintained that one should not arrogantly hold that one’s own ability to be disciplined allowed one to receive the grace of God. Grace was dependent on God. One requests this grace of God. Cassian viewed Augustine’s idea that God wills to save only some to be not only incompatible with monasticism but also with scripture. He believed that God gave humans the ability to neglect or delight in the grace of God. Here is a question to you my dear reader, is this view Pelagian? More next time.