Early Church · 415

On Nature and Grace

Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

A point by point reply to a lost book by Pelagius that argued human nature retains the full power to avoid sin. Augustine concedes the goodness of nature as created, then shows it wounded by the fall and unable to heal itself without the grace given in Christ. Composed around 415, it became one of the central texts of the Western doctrine of original sin and the necessity of grace, and it is the work in which Augustine first quotes Pelagius at length to refute him from his own words.

2.5 hrs total · 84 chapters