2nd–3rd centuries

Faith, Works and Free Will in the Fathers of the First Three Centuries

According to Berkhof, the Fathers of the first three centuries had no integrated conception of the application of redemption: all the pre-Augustinian Fathers taught a cooperation of freedom and grace. Faith was understood as knowledge of God, trust and devotion to him, but its relation to justification remained unclear; Christianity was described as a "new law," and the forgiveness received in baptism was thereafter "merited" by works. The Shepherd of Hermas already voices for the first time the idea that one can do more than a commandment requires. The Greek Fathers stressed free will, ascribing to it the initiative in regeneration; Tertullian introduced legal terms (guilt, satisfaction); and the Alexandrians distinguished a way of faith from a way of knowledge. Pagan critics (Celsus, Julian) ridiculed the forgiveness of sinners as "cheap grace."