On Nature and Grace
Augustine’s reply to a book by Pelagius on human nature, sent to him by two of Pelagius’s former followers. It quotes Pelagius’s arguments at length and answers them, without yet naming him, and sets out Augustine’s teaching on sin and grace.
Read the text at newadvent.org ↗The same translation with one page per chapter (CCEL) ↗
Two young men, Timasius and James, sent Augustine a book in which Pelagius defended the powers of human nature against those who excused their sins by its weakness. Augustine answered in this treatise. He does not name the author, and explains in a later work that he hoped still to win him. The book of Pelagius is lost, and the extracts Augustine quotes are among the few pieces of it that survive.
It is therefore evidence of two kinds: for what Augustine taught in 415, in his own words, and for what Pelagius had written, as selected and reported by his chief opponent. Augustine quotes his opponent’s words, but the choice of passages and the construction put on them are his.
Cited in
- AD 411 to AD 418, estimated date