Middle Ages (12th–15th centuries)

The Scholastic Doctrine of Grace, Formed Faith and Merit

Medieval theology understood grace as a supernatural power or created substance that God infuses into the soul to bridge the gap between God and humanity (McGrath). Bernard of Clairvaux, following Augustine, taught that grace changes the direction of the will without destroying it, and that "grace does the whole work, but so does free will." Peter Lombard distinguished operating and cooperating grace, and after him it became customary to distinguish unformed faith (intellectual assent) from faith formed and quickened by love, which alone justifies. Justification was understood as the infusion of sanctifying grace and the forgiveness of sins, never as the imputation of Christ's righteousness; the scholastics distinguished condign merit from congruous merit. According to Berkhof, the result was the Roman system: preparation for justification, justification in baptism, its loss through mortal sin and its restoration in the sacrament of penance.