397–430

Augustine, "Doctor of Grace": Efficacious Grace and Predestination

Pelikan names the sovereign God of grace as Augustine's central theme: grace is not given according to merit. By 397, studying Paul, Augustine had concluded that faith is God's gift (1 Cor. 4:7) and that those whom God has chosen are saved. The will of fallen man is free only to sin, so grace must precede every good desire; it is irresistible, yet it does not do violence to the will but changes it so that a person freely chooses the good. From this follows predestination: what God does in time he willed to do in eternity, and why one receives grace and another does not is an inscrutable mystery. The books assess his teaching on reprobation differently: Pelikan sees double predestination in Augustine, while González and Berkhof stress that God predestines no one to sin, and the reprobate remain in the "mass of perdition" because of their own sins.