The mystery behind the existence of man has been interpreted in a plethora of ways. There are countless explanations surrounding what it means to be the ‘ultimate creation’. Questions concerning our nature, sin, and grace have been explored by numerous theologians. What has been emphasized the most is the idea of what is free will and if we truly have it. One might think that free will does not existence because God is fully aware of the certain order of all causes, and thus knows all future decisions. This concept of God knowing everything that is going to happen is called divine providence.
An early Christian theologian and philosopher from Numidia named St. Augustine of Hippo acknowledges the “divine providence”, but disputes it’s ‘ability’ to take away our freedom to make decisions. He states that free will is in the world even if everything is already determined by “divine providence”. St. Augustine has no denial about the fact that we have free will. He defines good will as a will that helps people seek good life. We get to decide the difference between the good and the bad when making choices. The responsibility to make decisions is based on our conscience.
Free will is determined by whether or not we want to do something, and whether that things happen. Augustine stresses the grace of God to convey the intricacies of our free will. In his passage he expresses that, “It is one thing to be God, and another to share in God. God is unable to sin; anyone who shares in God has received from God the inability to sin.” (Augustine on Human Freedom). God must be free to give or withhold the gift of grace.
In his passage, St. Augustine utilizes the story of the Genesis of man to explain how we've gained our qualities. He proclaims that human beings were created in a state of impeccable perfection in a world that was in complete and total bliss. Unfortunately, we consigned it all to oblivion and fell into our present condition of imperfection because of the misuse of our freedom. From Adam we all inherit a will that has already fallen, a will that chooses evil continuously. God gave humans free will, but due to the Fall and Original Sin, humans are more inclined to do evil over good. He believes that humans have reason and will, but that there is a precedence of will over reason. Humans know what the right thing to do is, but they can choose whether to do it.
In contrast to St. Augustine’s views, a theologian and monk of British origin who's named Pelagius was an advocate for free will and ascetism. In Pelagius’s lost writing, pro libero arbitrio (“for the free will”), St. Augustine extracted some of his writings to denounce his perspectives on free will. What really got Augustine baffled was that Pelagius implies that when one chooses not to sin, it is in respect to the person that decides not to sin instead of God, whom granted us such an ability. Pelagius stresses self-sufficient human freedom and curtailed God’s need for grace. Basically, he believes that humans are capable of salvation mostly through their own selves.
Another view on free will that Augustine and Pelagius had opposed on was in accordance to the Fall of man. Pelagius claims that there is no link between Adam’s sin and the state all people are born into; that people are born innocent without sin. He thinks that Adam’s sin was his own personal sin and never got applied to the rest following Adam. He insinuates that the Fall of man had not debilitated nor immensely deformed the original state of humanity; which is the complete opposite of what Augustine believes. He seems to indicate that humanity is maturing in God’s image and accepting the responsibility of free will. He claims that there is grace of God active in the world, but it can be resisted. Humans can be redeemed and saved not through grace, but through their own efforts.
Both theologians carry such divergent views on how free will works but maintain the consistent idea that people have the free will to choose good or evil. When going more in depth on free will, they do have incredible dissimilarities. Augustine attracts to the idea that we will go more towards committing bad actions over good because human free will is weakened through the first Sin. On the other hand, Pelagius states that perfection is possible because Original Sin had no distortion in humanity. While Augustine believes that Original Sin is some sort of hereditary disease passes onto everyone, Pelagius believes that we are born perfect and can continue to be.
Another disparity between the two theologians is that grace was God’s generous gift to us necessary for us to do any good, while Pelagius views it as a natural human characteristic. Augustine’s basis of salvation is based off God’s grace and Pelagius’s states that it can be achieved by ourselves.