Word: pelagius
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...spine of Burgess's criticism is philosophical, and he has found his archetypal literary enemy in a most unusual source. In Burgess's view the worst modern vices (materialism, pragmatism, relativism) may be traced to the works and influence of the heretical English monk Pelagius, who denied original sin and, 1,500 years before Marx-or Harold Wilson-taught that human perfection was obtainable by civic means. There is an opposite, more severe, tragic tradition that he identifies with the moral absolutism of Saint Augustine. One or other of these disparate attitudes may be detected by Burgess...
...would suggest that the real reason that Father Herbert Haag cannot accept the doctrine of original sin is to be traced to his unmarried state. Like Pelagius (another single theologian), he has not had the advantage of seeing human nature close up in the form of growing children. If he had, he would undoubtedly know that children must be taught to do right, not to do wrong. Delightful as they are, they have an inborn teacher (original sin inherited from Adam) that instructs them most effectively...
...evil in a world supposedly created by a good God. In his pessimistic view, man was himself the culprit, woefully evil because his soul was imprisoned in an utterly fallen body, incapable of good unless drawn to it by the grace of Christ. In answer to the British monk Pelagius, who preached that man could save himself by good works without the initial prodding of grace, Augustine hurled his reply: Humanity had inherited the curse of Adam's sin. Without the grace of Christ's redemption, men were damned...
...Depravity. The Gnostics of early Christianity, who claimed to possess a "secret wisdom" left them by Jesus, argued that they were exempt from provisions of moral law, and for so believing were expelled from the church. The British monk Pelagius, who died around 418, in effect contended that man could achieve salvation by his own actions apart from God's gift of grace; he was formidably countered by St. Augustine of Hippo, who emphasized the utter depravity of man and the absolute necessity of Christ's death at Calvary for redemption...
Attacking activity-filled church calendars, the Christian Century recently proposed a "patron of church bulletins": the heretic Pelagius (A.D. ca. 360-420), who believed that man could save himself by his own efforts. Last week these busynesses, selected from Manhattan church bulletins, might have provided an ideal calendar for a mythical St. Pelagius' Church...