Pelagius
Human moral power retained after the Fall — and condemned for saying so
Pelagius arrived in Rome around 380 and became known for his ascetic discipline and his moral writing for the Christian elite. The fall of Rome (410) drove him to North Africa and the East, where his teaching that human beings retain real power to choose the good — and that infant baptism cleanses no inherited guilt, because there is no inherited guilt — collided with Augustine's developing doctrines of original sin and predestination. The councils of Carthage (411, 418) and Ephesus (431) condemned Pelagianism; Pelagius himself was excommunicated by Pope Innocent I and again by Zosimus. His writings survive mostly in his opponents' citations; the controversy permanently fixed the Western theological vocabulary around grace, free will, and original sin.
Key works
- Commentary on the Epistles of Paul (c. 405–410)
- On Nature (c. 414, now lost; survives in Augustine's citations)
- On Free Will (c. 416, lost)
- Letter to Demetrias (c. 413)
Declared Influences
Rationalism 30%
Catholic/Thomistic 20%
Naturalism 20%
Pragmatism 15%
Pelagius takes the moral commands of Scripture as presupposing real human capacity; if God commands the good, human beings must be able to do it. Rational moral psychology over against Augustine's pessimism.
"If I ought, I can." (paraphrasing Pelagius's standard reply to Augustinian fatalism, reported by Augustine, *De Natura et Gratia* 43)
Anachronistic, but the catholic-Thomistic tradition incorporated much of what Pelagius defended (real human freedom, cooperative grace) once it had also incorporated Augustinian original sin. The semi-Pelagian and Molinist developments of the position are catholic-Thomistic in shape.
"We must hold that there is a virtue freely given by God in every man." (*Letter to Demetrias* §3)
Pelagius rejects the inheritance of guilt; sin is a personal act, not a condition. Modern naturalist and humanist accounts of morality echo this rejection.
"Adam injured himself only, not his posterity." (Pelagius's position as condemned at Carthage, 411)
Pastoral and practical: the bondage doctrine, Pelagius held, destroys moral effort and ascetic discipline. Christian life is the cultivation of real virtue, not passive reception of grace.
"Reflect that virtue is not despised, but only the impossibility of attaining it." (*Letter to Demetrias* §16)
Internal Tensions
Pelagius's extant writings are more moderate than his condemned theses; "Pelagianism" as the technical doctrine condemned at Carthage may be partly an Augustinian construction. The defeated position has been intermittently rehabilitated — by Erasmus, by the Counter-Reformation Molinists, by liberal modern theology, and by secular humanism — usually under other names.
I. Time
Created and finite; standard Christian eschatological structure but with stronger emphasis on the temporal-moral career of the individual.
Attributes
II. Space
Substantival, created; conventional.
Attributes
III. Matter
Substantival, created; conventional.
Attributes
IV. Observer
Robust libertarian moral agency; no inherited guilt, no bondage of the will. Individuals are responsible for their own acts.
Attributes
V. Energy
Conventional.
Attributes
VI. Information
Personal information conserved through immortality, with moral self-formation as the work of the present life.
Attributes
Classified works
Works in the atlas that Pelagius authored or that draw on this persona's writings, with full attribute fingerprints of their own.
Computed school proximity
The persona's attribute fingerprint scored against all 202 schools using the same quiz scorer. Useful as a sanity check on the hand-curated influences above.
Philosophical neighbors
Other personas whose attribute fingerprint sits closest to Pelagius's — intellectual neighbors across traditions and eras.
How Pelagius resolves each dilemma
36 resolved positions across 4 dimensions, including 5 distinctive where the majority of schools go the other way · 21 unaligned.
Each dimension is sorted so minority positions come first. Mainstream positions are folded into an expandable list.
Time · 9 dilemmas · 3 distinctive
Persistence, the future, and the direction of becoming.
3 mainstream positions
Matter · 7 dilemmas, all mainstream
Observer · 37 dilemmas · 2 distinctive
Mind, agency, and the knower's relation to the known.
17 mainstream positions
18 unaligned
Information · 4 dilemmas, all mainstream
Films Referencing This Persona (8)
Either directly referenced in the film, or reading the film through one of this persona's top schools.
Experiments Engaging This Persona's Schools
Surface via influence-schools that respond to the experiment. Each entry shows the school through which the connection runs.