Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 17:58:56 -0700
From: *THAT* Matt Weber 
Subject: Re: (urth) The pelagic argosy

>While rereading Lem, I was suddenly caught by "no more than any genuine
>heresy such as the Manichaean or the Pelagian."  And yes, the Pelagians
>"emphasize human free will as the decisive element in human
>perfectibility and minimize or deny the need for divine grace and
>redemption".  Well, it *might* be a coincidence.
>
>
>
>--
>| David Duffy (MBBS PhD)                                         ,-_|\
>| email: davidD@qimr.edu.au  ph: INT+61+7+3362-0217 fax: -0101  /     *
>| Epidemiology Unit, Queensland Institute of Medical Research   \_,-._/
>| 300 Herston Rd, Brisbane, Queensland 4029, Australia  GPG 4D0B994A v
>
>--
>

Pelagius is usually seen as the counter of Augustine's views on free 
will and human perfectibility.  Pelagius held that human beings 
could, through the exercise of free will, choose good over evil 
independent of God's help; Augustine's somewhat more pessimistic view 
was that without God's grace men were irredeemably depraved.  Of 
course, Augustine's became the official Church party line and later 
led to the excesses of Calvin, Knox, et al.

Anthony Burgess is pretty obviously Pelagian in his view of human 
perfectibility, btw...

Matt

poll oid alwphx, all exinos en meya.
	Archilochus, fl. c. 650 B.C., in E. Diehl (ed.), Anth. Lyr. Gr.

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