The Pelagian heresy extends from a late 4th / early 5th century theologian who favored the free will of mankind so much that he downgraded the effects of the fall and original sin, promoted the ability of mankind to do good apart from divine grace,2 and, thereby, emphasized man’s ability to obtain salvation by human effort.3 According to followers of Pelagius, the only thing imparted to Adam’s descendants is the bad example that he set.4 Bede spoke of this heresy because of Pelagius’ ties to Briton (possibly born there) and his teaching coming around to the British, Irish, and English speaking people.5
One major problem is that Pelagian theology directly contradicts the witness of Scripture concerning man’s sin nature (example: Romans 5). Further, it contradicts the teaching of Christ who affirmed that mankind cannot seek the will of God on their own (see John 3). Furthermore, it is counter to the teaching of the Apostles and the early church who taught that we are dead in our sins. Being dead is not something that can be overcome by human will, yet Pelagianism taken to it logical conclusion would have to say that humans can esteem to such a position.
Today’s form of Pelagianism extends from traditions inherited from the teaching of Peter Abelard (c.1079-1142) which, “overstressed the subjective appropriation of the cross, holding that the central intent of Christ was to serve as supreme example of divine love eliciting and enabling a loving human response…”6 Thus, it is a subjective humanistic view of the atonement which reduces Christ’s work on the cross to a moral example in which human beings can follow to discard evil and do what is good. A good example of those who pick up this strand of teaching is the emergent or progressive church movement, which tends to have a low view of the Bible, a high view of Christ’s humanity, and a relative view of moral teaching.7 Inherent in such a view would have to be a very high view of the inherent goodness of human beings which suffers from the same problems as Pelagianism.
Picture info: St. Augustine’s Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Canterbury, Kent, England. The abbey was founded in 598 and functioned as a monastery until its dissolution in 1538. Named after St. Augustine of Canterbury who opposed Pelagius.
Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, ed. Ronald Latham and D. H. Farmer, trans. Leo Sherley-Price, Revised edition (Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1991), 362.
“Pelagius | Biography, Beliefs, & Facts | Britannica,” accessed November 13, 2021, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pelagius-Christian-theologian.
Norman L. Geisler, Systematic Theology: In One Volume, One volume edition (Minneapolis, Minn: Bethany House Publishers, 2011), 784.
Bede, 362.
Thomas C. Oden, Classic Christianity: A Systematic Theology (HarperOne, 2009), 429.
Alisa Childers, Another Gospel? A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity (Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale Momentum, 2020), 71-94.