Semi-Pelagianism

Semi-Pelagianism (or Semipelagianism) is a historical Christian theological and soteriological school of thought about the role of free will in salvation. In semipelagian thought, a distinction is made between the beginning of faith and the increase of faith. Semi-Pelagian thought teaches that the latter half – growing in faith – is the work of God, while the beginning of faith is an act of free will, with grace supervening only later.^[1]

The term "semi-Pelagianism", a 16th-century coinage, is considered a misnomer by many modern scholars."Semi-Pelagianism" has frequently been used in a pejorative sense.

Semi-Pelagianism was, in the theory, originally developed as a compromise between Pelagianism and the teaching of Church Fathers such as Saint Augustine. Adherents to Pelagianism hold that people are born untainted by sin and do not need salvation unless they choose to sin, a belief which had been dismissed as heresy. In contrast, Augustine taught that people cannot come to God without the grace of God. Like Pelagianism, what is now called Semi-pelagianism was labeled heresy by the Western Church at the Second Council of Orange in 529.

In contrast, most Christian communions teach that the initiative for faith comes from God. Some, notably Catholics and Orthodox, teach that it then requires free collaboration on the part of man (synergism): "The fatherly action of God is first on his own initiative, and then follows man's free acting through his collaboration".^[2] "Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life."^[3]