Historical Background
The Pelagian controversy set the terms: Pelagius ascribed the initiative to the human will instructed by law and example; Augustine answered that grace must precede and produce the good will itself, a position ratified in the West at Orange (529), which confessed that even the desire for faith is grace's work while rejecting predestination to evil. Medieval theology distinguished operating and cooperating grace in Aquinas. The Reformation polarized the question in the Erasmus and Luther exchange of 1524-25 (On the Freedom of the Will against On the Bondage of the Will). Molina's middle knowledge offered a Jesuit account of grace and freedom that Dominicans opposed in the De Auxiliis controversy (1598-1607), which Rome closed without deciding. Wesleyan prevenient grace is the question's evangelical-Arminian answer.
Scripture References
- Ezekiel 18
- John 6:37-44
- Romans 9
- Philippians 2:12-13
- 1 Timothy 2:3-6
The Questions
- Does grace determine the will, persuade it, or free it, and are these different doctrines or different descriptions? Work on this question in the Workshop
- Is the first movement toward God ever the human being's own? Work on this question in the Workshop
- Can a grace sufficient for salvation be given and yet not save? Work on this question in the Workshop
- Does cooperation after grace differ in kind from cooperation before it? Work on this question in the Workshop
The Positions on This Subject
Classical Arminianism
The grace by which God calls sinners is real and necessary, and it can be resisted and finally rejected; God does not save by overriding the human will.
Eastern Orthodox
Salvation is synergy: the grace of God and the human will work together, grace always preceding and never coercing; neither a monergism that erases the person nor an autonomy that saves itself.
Baptist and Evangelical
Every soul is competent to approach God directly under Christ's lordship, and no church, creed, or magistrate may stand as coercive mediator in the matter of salvation.
Wesleyan-Arminian
No one is left in mere nature: prevenient grace, given to all through Christ, restores a measure of free response, awakens conscience, and draws every person toward God before any conscious turning.
Objections
Monergism is objected to as making human response a theater in which God acts on both sides. Synergism is objected to as dividing the credit for salvation between God and the creature. Middle knowledge is objected to as grounding God's knowledge in truths about creatures that nothing makes true. Each objection has been pressed for centuries without a settlement the whole church accepts.
Sources
Primary: Diotrophes (Erasmus), On the Freedom of the Will (1524); Martin Luther, On the Bondage of the Will (1525); Luis de Molina, Concordia (1588); Second Council of Orange, Canons (529).
Secondary: Eef Dekker, Middle Knowledge (Kok Pharos, 1993); Thomas P. Flint, Divine Providence: The Molinist Account (Cornell University Press, 1998).