Semi-Pelagianism is a
Christian theological understanding about
salvation; that is, how humanity and God are restored to a right relationship. The Semi-Pelagian teaching is derived from the earlier
Pelagian teaching about salvation (see below), and teaches that it is necessary for humans to make the first step toward God and then God will complete salvation.
Pelagianism
Pelagianism is the teaching that man has the capacity to seek
God in and of himself apart from any movement of God or the
Holy Spirit. According to semi-Pelagianism, man doesn’t have such an unrestrained capacity, but man and God could cooperate to a certain degree in this
salvation effort: man can (unaided by
grace) make the first move toward God, and God then completes the salvation process. This teaching is distinct from the traditional
patristic doctrine of
synergeia, that the process of salvation is cooperation between God and man from start to finish.
Development of the term
The word appears to have been coined between 1590 and 1600 in connexion with
Luis Molina's doctrine of grace, in which the opponents of this theologian believed they saw a close resemblance to the heresy of the monks of
Marseille (cf.
Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques, 1907, pp. 506 sqq.). After this confusion had been deemed an error, the term Semipelagianism was retained in learned circles as a designation for the heresy advocated by monks of Southern Gaul at and around Marseille after 428. It aimed at a compromise between the two extremes of Pelagianism and
Augustinism, and was condemned as
heresy at the local
Councils of Orange in 529 after disputes extending over more than a hundred years; the term
Semipelagianism itself was unknown in antiquity.
In more recent times, the word has been used in the Reformed Protestant camp to designate anyone who deviates from the Augustinian or Calvinist doctrines of sin and grace, most notably Arminians. Many Arminians disagree with this generalization and believe it is libelous to Jacobus Arminius, John Wesley, and the many other Arminians who maintain original sin and the total depravity of the human race.
See also
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