THEME 4A – RELIGIOUS CONCEPTS OF FREE WILL WITH REFERENCE TO THE TEACHINGS OF
PELAGIUS AND ARMINIUS
A01 - Examine religious concepts of free will with reference to the teachings of Pelagius and
Arminius [30]
PLAN
1. Opposes Inherited Sin
2. Maturing in God’s Image + responsibility for free will / used to follow God’s law
3. Role of grace in salvation
4. Denial of Calvinist View – Role of Original Sin
5. Prevenient Grace
6. Election by Condition
The religious concept of free will was developed by Pelagius in response to Augustine’s
predestination theology, arguing that people had the free will to resist sin. This was later developed
by Arminius in the 16th century who rejected the Calvinist view of predestination who argued free
will and predestination were compatible.
Firstly, Pelagius opposes Augustine’s view that humanity inherited concupiscence or our sinful
nature from Adam and Eve’s original sin, maintaining that an omnibenevolent God would not punish
all of humanity for their sins. He supports this by pointing towards the teaching of Deuteronomy
“each will die for their own sins” and from this argues that “we (humanity) may not seem to be
forced to do evil through a fault in our nature.” For Pelagius it is thus the participation in the ‘fallen
world’ that leads to sin, not an inherited tendency.
Building on this, Pelagius goes further and argues that Adam and Eve’s decision to eat from the
forbidden tree can be seen as a good thing for humanity as he believed that this illustrated that
humanity was mature enough to receive the gift of free will to follow God’s laws (using examples
from the Old Testament who maturely used free will to follow God’s laws and remained sinless such
as Abel, Noah and Abraham) Furthermore, Pelagius also believed that the laws of Moses / the 10
commandments were introduced by God as a reminder to humanity that they have the capacity to
freely choose between good and evil, arguing that a loving God would not create commandments
that humans could not follow.
For Pelagius, freely choosing to resist temptation and keep to the commandments was ‘doing good
works’ and his theory suggests that a person can achieve salvation by freely choosing to follow God’s
PELAGIUS AND ARMINIUS
A01 - Examine religious concepts of free will with reference to the teachings of Pelagius and
Arminius [30]
PLAN
1. Opposes Inherited Sin
2. Maturing in God’s Image + responsibility for free will / used to follow God’s law
3. Role of grace in salvation
4. Denial of Calvinist View – Role of Original Sin
5. Prevenient Grace
6. Election by Condition
The religious concept of free will was developed by Pelagius in response to Augustine’s
predestination theology, arguing that people had the free will to resist sin. This was later developed
by Arminius in the 16th century who rejected the Calvinist view of predestination who argued free
will and predestination were compatible.
Firstly, Pelagius opposes Augustine’s view that humanity inherited concupiscence or our sinful
nature from Adam and Eve’s original sin, maintaining that an omnibenevolent God would not punish
all of humanity for their sins. He supports this by pointing towards the teaching of Deuteronomy
“each will die for their own sins” and from this argues that “we (humanity) may not seem to be
forced to do evil through a fault in our nature.” For Pelagius it is thus the participation in the ‘fallen
world’ that leads to sin, not an inherited tendency.
Building on this, Pelagius goes further and argues that Adam and Eve’s decision to eat from the
forbidden tree can be seen as a good thing for humanity as he believed that this illustrated that
humanity was mature enough to receive the gift of free will to follow God’s laws (using examples
from the Old Testament who maturely used free will to follow God’s laws and remained sinless such
as Abel, Noah and Abraham) Furthermore, Pelagius also believed that the laws of Moses / the 10
commandments were introduced by God as a reminder to humanity that they have the capacity to
freely choose between good and evil, arguing that a loving God would not create commandments
that humans could not follow.
For Pelagius, freely choosing to resist temptation and keep to the commandments was ‘doing good
works’ and his theory suggests that a person can achieve salvation by freely choosing to follow God’s
