Selected Writings on Grace and Pelagianism

The six major treatises presented in this volume amply illustrate Augustine's struggle with the theological problems that Pelagianism raised. Six major treatises presented in this volume include Miscellany of Questions in Response to Simplician I, The Punishment and Forgiveness of Sins and the Baptism of Little Ones, The Spirit and the Letter, Nature and Grace, The Predestination of the Saints, and The Gift of Perseverance. These works are selected from the Answers to the Pelagians I, Answers to the Pelagians IV, and Responses to Miscellaneous Questions.

Of the different controversies that preoccupied Augustine during his lifetime, Pelagianism was indisputably the most important for the subsequent history and theology of the western Church. It touched on any number of issues central to Christianity, most notably grace, predestination, original sin and baptism, all of which in turn could be reduced to the fundamental question of the exact nature of the relationship between God and his human creation.

The six major treatises presented in this volume amply illustrate Augustine's struggle with the theological problems that Pelagianism raised.