Theology is Complicated because Life is Complicated.
On Grace and Free Will by St. Augustine.
The book opens with Augustine learning that two factions of monks are warring in their monastery about grace and free will. One group says that free will plays no role in salvation, while the other argues that human effort plays some role. The argument is intense. Since both sides are quoting Augustine, he invites the wrong side — the grace-only side — to spend some time with him so that he can straighten things out.
And stop there for a moment.
Wouldn’t you love it if you were in an argument about something and the guy who is the acknowledged expert about it agreed with you?
In any event. Augustine writes:
1. Two young men, Cresconius and Felix, have found their way to us, and, introducing themselves as belonging to your brotherhood, have told us that your monastery was disturbed with no small commotion, because certain amongst you preach grace in such a manner as to deny that the will of man is free; and maintain — a more serious matter — that in the day of judgment God will not render to every man according to his works. At the same time, they have pointed out to us, that many of you do not entertain this opinion, but allow that free will is assisted by the grace of God, so as that we may think and do aright; so that, when the Lord shall come to render unto every man according to his works, He shall find those works of ours good which God has prepared in order that we may walk in them. They who think this think rightly.
And that settles that.
There never again would be any dispute about predestination.
Joking!
There is that little episode called “The Reformation,” in which this issue involved more than just Cresconius and Felix.
This is a seminal and surprising work. It is surprising because Augustine is usually presented as a forerunner of Lutheran and Calvinist predestination. However, Augustine makes sure to carve out a place for human effort and divine grace. Augustine writes:
Chapter 18. — Faith Without Good Works is Not Sufficient for Salvation. Unintelligent persons, however, with regard to the apostle’s statement: “We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law,” have thought him to mean that faith suffices to a man, even if he lead a bad life, and has no good works. Impossible is it that such a character should be deemed “a vessel of election” by the apostle, who, after declaring that “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,” adds at once, “but faith which worketh by love.” It is such faith which severs God’s faithful from unclean demons, — for even these “believe and tremble,” as the Apostle James says; but they do not do well. Therefore they possess not the faith by which the just man lives, — the faith which works by love in such wise, that God recompenses it according to its works with eternal life. But inasmuch as we have even our good works from God, from whom likewise comes our faith and our love, therefore the selfsame great teacher of the Gentiles has designated “eternal life” itself as His gracious “gift.
Augustine’s goal in this book is to explain how grace can square with free will. Is he successful?
Yes and no.
Augustine is successful because he is bound by — as are we — our experience that we do contribute to our salvation through our efforts. This intuition is supported by logic. As Augustine asks:
Now, I would ask, if there is no grace of God, how does He save the world? and if there is no free will, how does He judge the world?
On the one hand, free will is required for there to be justice. Before reward and punishment, can justly be the consequence of action, the action must be the result of a choice, and the choice must be a free choice.
Moreover, obedience and concomitant reward are attested throughout Christian scripture. Augustine anticipates Erasmus’s debate with Luther in this passage:
All these commandments, however, respecting love or charity (which are so great, and such that whatever action a man may think he does well is by no means well done if done without love) would be given to men in vain if they had not free choice of will.
And:
Nor does it detract at all from a man’s own will when he performs any act in accordance with God. Indeed, a work is then to be pronounced a good one when a person does it willingly; then, too, may the reward of a good work be hoped for from Him concerning whom it is written, “He shall reward every man according to his works.
On the other hand, grace is also found throughout scripture.
Thus, both must be accounted for in any Christian theological system. How the two are reconciled is often a matter of what you order from the theological menu.
Where does grace play a role in Augustine’s view? Presumably by attracting or inspiring individuals to love God and do good:
It Pleases Him. I think I have now discussed the point fully enough in opposition to those who vehemently oppose the grace of God, by which, however, the human will is not taken away, but changed from bad to good, and assisted when it is good.
Ultimately, how this all works remains a deep mystery that Augustine called the “secret judgments of God.”
Augustine’s answer is the Catholic “both/and,” which is always less satisfying than the Secular/Protestant “either/or.” “Either/or” thinking offers the comfort of certitude; it offers a resolution and an end to doubt. We have an answer; if we get with the program, we don’t have to deal with the tension of two competing principles. We can relax. All we have to do is parrott the meme.
“Both/and” thinking leaves us forever uncertain as we deal with the tension between “do I have control?” and “I do not have control.”
On the other hand, “both/and” is more true to how we live our lives. We all experience the fact that there are times and ways in which we contribute to our acts and other times and ways when we experience that our acts are not entirely in our control. Declaring the correct answer to be solely free will or solely predestined does not fit the properly basic experiences we have.
And, so, we have to remain in a state of tension, knowing that, maybe, we have some involvement in what we do.
I found this to be a surprisingly accessible work. But then, I also read the Summa Theologica and other works by Augustine. Someone without that background might find the text less accessible.
