Adam’s will was the will of the species. Because the whole human race existed as one moral person in Adam, …show more content…
It was Augustine’s belief that the original sin of Adam and Eve thoroughly damaged human nature. Even the newborn baby is not innocent of the tendency toward greed and envy. Additionally he thought that God’s grace, the gift of charity bestowed by the Holy Spirit, is absolutely necessary to change the orientation of the human will and to direct the human heart toward God.
Pelagius, a monk from Britain, had a different view from Augustine on sin. He taught and gave spiritual advice to Christians at Rome who were interesting in pursuing and ascetic way of life. As a Christian reformer, he sought to convince the wealthy and worldly Christians of Rome that they could be authentic Christians by turning away from sinful lives and living lives of simplicity.
The core of Pelagius’ teaching was that God has given human beings reason and free will. To deny either of these was to question the goodness of God’s creation and to make nonsense of the Christian belief concerning the justice of rewards and punishments in the afterlife. God would be unjust to punish us for sins that we could not avoid. With sufficient effort and help from the grace of God human beings are capable of over coming the power of sin and living holy