Synergism comes from the Greeksyn (with) andergon (work) and refers to two or more sources working together.[1] InChristian theology, it describes the cooperative effort betweenGod and humanity in the process ofsalvation.[2][3] It implies afree human participation in salvation.[4]
During this period, a moderate form of Pelagianism emerged, later termedSemi-Pelagianism. This view asserted thathuman will initiates salvation, rather than divinegrace.[15] The Semi-Pelagian view is therefore described as "human-initiated synergism".[16]
In 529, theSecond Council of Orange addressed Semi-Pelagianism and declared that even the inception of faith is a result of God’s grace.[17][18][19] This highlights the role ofprevenient grace enabling human belief.[20][21] This view, often referred to as "Semi-Augustinian," is therefore described as "God-initiated synergism".[22][23][24][25] The Council also rejectedpredestination toevil.[26]
Characterization of the Pelagian-Augustinian salvation framework
The Pelagian-Augustinian framework serves as a key paradigm for understanding contemporary forms of synergism.[27] Augustine argued that prevenient grace is necessary to prepare the human will forconversion.[28] He maintained that God predetermined parents to seek baptism for their newborns, linkingwater baptism toregeneration.[29] Furthermore, he viewed the divine grace that brings about conversion as unfailing.[30][31][32]
The Semi-Augustinian stance builds upon Augustinian thought, also associating regeneration with water baptism.[33] However, it rejects predetermination, allowing space for human decision, particularly in the act of faith.[34] Thus, it maintains that vocation and the gift of faith are divine actions throughprevenient grace, while faith itself is a human action, and regeneration remains a divine action.[20][21] TheSemi-Pelagian position holds thatvocation and conversion throughfaith are human actions, while the "increase of faith" bringingregeneration is a divine action.[35][15][36] InPelagianism, humans possess the innate capacity to obey God. Consequently, all steps of salvation are voluntary human actions.[37][38]
Comparison of the authors' actions in the Pelagian - Augustinian salvation frameworks
InEastern Orthodox theology, God's grace and the human response work together in a "cooperation" or "synergy".[46] This perspective has historically presented less theological tension on this issue compared to theChristian West.[47] In the salvation process, divine grace always precedes any human action.[48] Man possesseslibertarian freedom (as implied by theGnomic will) and must consciously respond to divine grace.[49] This understanding is similar to theArminian protestant synergism.[50] The Orthodox synergistic process of salvation includes baptism as a response to divine grace.[51] Deification, ortheosis is also an integral part of this process.[52]
Anabaptists hold to synergism,[54] teaching that "both God and man play real and necessary parts in the reconciling relationship which binds them."[55] Anabaptists have a high view of the moral capacities of humans when "enlivened by the active agency of the Holy Spirit".[55]
Christians who adhere toArminian theology, such asMethodists, believe that salvation is synergistic.[56]Jacobus Arminius first emphasized the role ofprevenient grace, which involves amonergistic act of God, followed by "subsequent" act involving a synergistic work.[57] Thus, for Arminians, prevenient grace involves a synergistic process.[58] Similarly,John Wesley held that salvation begins with divine initiative.[59] Additionally,Wesleyan-Arminian theology teaches that bothjustification andsanctification are synergistic.[60] The Arminian perspective on salvation is often described as "God-initiated synergism".[59] This perspective aligns closely with the main characteristic of the early Semi-Augustinian thought.[61][25]
Semi-Pelagianism is present in many currentevangelical denominations.[62] It holds that a person can initiatefaith independently, withoutprevenient grace, while its continuation throughregeneration depends on God’s grace.[35][15][36] This has led to its characterization as "human-initiated synergism".[16] After theReformation,Reformed theologians used the term "Semi-Pelagianism" to describe both "Semi-Pelagianism" and "Semi-Augustininianism," the latter being a divine-initiated synergism.[25][63]
Martin Luther (1483-1546) limitedmonergism strictly tosoteriological aspects.[64] He asserted that monergism applied to both election (to salvation) andreprobation.[65][66]Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560), however, rejected monergism after Luther's death in favor of synergism.[67] Melanchthon's stance influenced many Lutherans of his time throughout Europe to adopt synergism.[68] The "synergistic controversy" arose whenGnesio-Lutherans, citing Luther's monergistic stance, opposed John Pfeffinger's synergistic views on the role of human will in conversion.[69]
By 1580, Melanchthon's view had lost prominence, and theBook of Concord (1580) affirmed soteriological monergism in relation to election (to salvation), but explicitly rejected its application to reprobation.[70] Accordingly, the contemporaryLutheran Church continues to uphold this view.[71][72] While monergism remains the official stance, Lutheran history includes both monergist and synergist views.[73][71]
In orthodoxReformed theology, divine monergism is understood as operating through an exhaustivedivine providence.[74] For example,Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) viewed that everything, including human salvation and reprobation, wasdetermined by God.[75] In contrast, "libertarian Calvinism", a revision described byOliver D. Crisp in his bookDeviant Calvinism (2014), is asoteriological monergism.[76] Historically, this perspective has remained a minority view within Calvinism.[77]
Anglicanism originally inclined toward monergism due to itsLutheran and Calvinist heritage, but it eventually accommodated both monergistic and synergistic interpretations.[78][79] TheThirty-nine Articles of Religion, finalized in 1571, serve as the confession of faith for the Anglican tradition.[80] They reflect a complex interplay ofCalvinist influence,Catholic practice, and intentional ambiguity within individual articles.[81][82] Today, in some Anglican denominations,clergy are required to acknowledge the Articles, while in others, they are not.[80]
Anglicanism has historically leaned more toward monergism, particularly in its early phases.[83] Early Anglican leaders such asThomas Cranmer (1489–1556) held Reformed views that significantly shaped the Church’s initial doctrinal direction.[78] However, following theStuart Restoration (1660) through the mid-18th century, Calvinist theology became less prominent within Anglicanism.[84] Afterward, theEvangelical movement within Anglicanism revived and emphasized itsReformed roots.[85] Related groups like theChurch Society tend to interpret Article 10 of the Thirty-nine Articles in a monergistic sense.[86]
^Crisp 2014, p. . "I take it that most traditional Augustinians [...] align themselves with the doctrines of election and theological determinism of a compatibilist variety.", chap. "Traditional Augustinianism".
^abBarrett 2013, p. xxvii, . "[D]ivine monergism is the view of Augustine and the Augustinians."
^James 1998, p. 103. "If one asks, whether double predestination is a logical implication or development of Augustine's doctrine, the answer must be in the affirmative."
^abcdBarrett 2013, p. xxvii, . "God-initiated synergism is the view of the Semi-Augustinians".
^Denzinger 1954, ch. Second Council of Orange, art. 199. "We not only do not believe that some have been truly predestined to evil by divine power, but also with every execration we pronounce anathema upon those, if there are [any such], who wish to believe so great an evil."
^Bird 2021, p. 89-90. "The asymmetry in Augustine’s doctrine of grace is here plainly stated: if a man believes, it is because he has been irresistibly drawn; but if he does not believe, “his determination stands alone.” All credit for conversion is attributed to God; all guilt for refusal, to man. In coming to this position, Augustine had not abandoned his previously developed notions of adjutive grace and the power of delight, but now comprehended that both the adjutum and the delectatio must be of overwhelming strength. Salvation comes to a man when God does a work in him by his Spirit that can neither fail nor be refused."
^Denzinger 1954, ch. Confirmation of the Council of Orange II, Item 178. "If anyone says, that just as the increase [of faith] so also the beginning of faith and the very desire of credulity, by which we believe in Him who justifies the impious, and (by which) we arrive at the regeneration of holy baptism (is) not through the gift of grace, that is, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit reforming our will from infidelity to faith, from impiety to piety, but is naturally in us, he is proved (to be) antagonistic to the doctrine of the Apostles [...]".
^Denzinger 1954, ch. Confirmation of the Council of Orange II, Item 199.
^John Paul II 1993, item 2001. "The preparation of man for the reception of grace is already a work of grace."
^John Paul II 1993, item 1742. "By the working of grace the Holy Spirit educates us in spiritual freedom in order to make us free collaborators in his work in the Church and in the world".
^Kirkpatrick 2018, p. 223. "[Sungenis] is showing how baptism is the entry point into justification, that righteousness is something progressively attained synergistically, and that sanctification and justification belong together as one in the same end."
^LWF&RCC 2019. "When Catholics say that persons 'cooperate' in preparing for and accepting justification by consenting to God's justifying action, they see such personal consent as itself an effect of grace, not as an action arising from innate human abilities."
^Reymond 2010, ch. How does God saves men?. "Rome holds that through the foundational sacraments of baptism the sinner is delivered from the liability of original sin, and through the sacraments of the Mass and of penance the liabilities of postbaptismal sins are removed. Theinstitutional church becomes then through its sacramental ministrations the sources and conveyer of saving grace to men [...]".
^Ware 1993, PT274. "To describe the relation between the grace of God and human freedom, Orthodoxy uses the term cooperation or synergy (synergeia); in Paul's words, 'We are fellow-workers (synergoi) with God' (1 Corinthians iii, 9). If we are to achieve full fellowship with God, we cannot do so without God's help, yet we must also play our own part: we humans as well as God must make our contribution to the common work, although what God does is of immeasurably greater importance than what we do."
^Payton Jr. 2010, p. 151. "In Eastern Christian understanding of synergy, God's grace and human response work together without the questions of rivalry that have bedeviled the Western Christian disagreement about monergism and synergism."
^Overbeck 1899, Decree 14. "For the regenerated to do spiritual good — for the works of the believer being contributory to salvation and wrought by supernatural grace are properly called spiritual — it is necessary that he be guided and prevented [preceded] by grace."
^Payton Jr. 2010, p. 151, . "[H]uman beings always have the freedom to choose, in their personal (gnomic) wills, whether to walk with God or turn from Him".
^Stamoolis 2010, p. 138. "A further concession is made, one that could easily be made by an Arminian Protestant who shared the Orthodox understanding of synergism (i.e., regeneration as the fruit of free will's cooperation with grace): 'The Orthodox emphasis on the importance of the human response toward the grace of God, which at the same time clearly rejects salvation by works, is a healthy synergistic antidote to any antinomian tendencies that might result from (distorted) juridical understandings of salvation'."
^Stamoolis 2010, p. 74. "In orthodox baptismal theology, [...] the candidate for baptism merely responds to and cooperates with that divine grace by actively welcoming it into his or her heart by faith and then living out the baptism through active obedience on that same principle of unmeritable synergism."
^Stamoolis 2010, p. 74, . "Faith is both a divine gift and the free response of the human person. [...] This is the basis for Orthodox asceticism and its goal of deification (theosis) as the content of salvation."
^Olson 2009, p. 18. "When Arminian synergism is referred to, I am referring to evangelical synergism, which affirms the prevenience of grace to every human exercise of a good will toward God, including simple nonresistance to the saving work of Christ."
^abLowery 2008, ch. A more Naturalized Interpretation of Grace. "Although Wesley believes that salvation begins with divine initiative, he still places great emphasis on human responsibility. As such, salvation itself should be viewed as a synergism initiated by God".
^Fahlbusch 2008, p. 272. "Methodist 'synergism' is grounded in the conviction that in the justification begun in the new birth (the beginning of the divine work), there will have to be 'appropriate fruits'."
^Olson 2009, p. 30. "Today, semi-Pelagianism is the default theology of most American evangelical Christians."
^Marko 2020, p. 772. "Those who did not think a prevenient grace was necessary for initial human response or that it was resistible came to be called semi-Pelagians by Protestants in the post Reformation period."
^Straton 2020, p. 159. "Luther: A person's will is in bondage to sin and cannot, without the grace of God, respond to the gospel. However, apart from salvation-related issues, people can choose freely".
^Horton 2011, ch. 9.2. "In fact, Luther affirmed both election and reprobation in the strongest terms."
^Sammons 2020, p. 60. "Luther presents double predestination clearly, basing it on his understanding of God."
^Bente 1921, ch. 14.154. "Melanchthon repudiated the monergism of Luther, espoused and defended the powers of free will in spiritual matters, and thought, argued, spoke, and wrote in terms of synergism. Indeed, Melanchthon must be regarded as the father of both synergism and the rationalistic methods employed in its defense, and as the true father also of the modern rationalistico-synergistic theology represented by such distinguished men as Von Hofmann, Thomasius, Kahnis, Luthardt."
^Olson 2009, p. 14. "Because of Melanchthon's influence on post-Luther Lutheranism, many Lutherans throughout Europe adopted a synergistic outlook on salvation, eschewing unconditional predestination and affirming that grace is resistible".
^Horton 2011,ch. 9.2. "In fact, Luther affirmed both election and reprobation in the strongest terms. The Lutheran confessions, however, affirm God's unconditional election of those on Whom he will mercy but deny his reprobation of the rest as an actual decreee. The confessional Lutheran and Reformed theologies differ with respect to the decree of reprobation, the extent of atonement, and the resistibility of God´s grace, they are united in their defense of soteriologicalmonergism (i.e., God alone working in salvation), grounded in his unconditional election of sinners in Jesus Christ." [emphasis in original].
^Sammons 2020, p. 62. "While there are some in the Lutheran tradition who adhere to single predestination, it is apparent that Luther himself did not."
^Pinson 2022, p. 147. "Despite the fact that many scholars neatly divide Lutherans into "monergistic" and "synergistic" camps, no good Lutheran ever wanted to be known as a synergist. This include famous scholastic Lutherans such as Aegidius Hunnius, Johann Gerhard, and Johannes Andreas Quendstedt. Most Lutherans throughout history have believed like Melanchthon, that [...] God personally elects individuals in eternity pastintuitu Christi meriti fide apprehendi. This is precisely what Arminius believed."
^Robinson 2022, p. 379. "[T]he heart of Calvinism is as monergism that effectively makes God the sole actor in human history [...]".
^James 1998b. "Zwingli attributes both to the divine will in the same way, constructing an absolutely symmetrical doctrine of double predestination. The cause and means of both election and reprobation are precisely the same. For Zwingli, God is the exclusive and immediate cause of all things."
^Olson 2015. "Crisp’s “libertarian Calvinism” is not consistent with the vast majority of modern and contemporary Calvinisms in the U.S., [...] And it is not acceptable to Arminians because of its soteriological monergism [...]".
^Moreland 2001, p. 155. "Indeed, throughout history there have been Calvinists who have accepted libertarian freedom for non-moral or non-salvific decisions".
^Salter 2018. "The code and creed of Anglicanism is richly Trinitarian (divine self-disclosure), soteriologically monergistic (grace alone), and warmly pastoral (godly care) in its approach to the people it serves within and beyond the bounds of its membership."
^Griffith & Radcliff 2022, p. 1. "From the Restoration to the mid-eighteenth century Calvinist theology was hardly evident in Anglicanism."
^Woolford 2017. "Article 10 underwritesmonergistic (frommono — ‘one,’ andergo — ‘to work’) doctrine of justification. [...] It teaches that our state of spiritual death — the utter inability of the bound human will — means thateverything that goes into our coming to spiritual lifehas to belong to God. His is the whole initiative; his is the decisive, effective will."
^Browne 1865, pp. 280–281. "The doctrine of Scripture, however, is evidently expressed in the words of our Article [X]. God must give the will, must set the will free from its natural slavery, before it can turn to good; but then it moves in the freedom which He has bestowed upon it, and never so truly uses that freedom, as when it follows the motions of the Spirit. Yet clearly there remains some power to resist and to do evil. For, though “those that have no will to good things God maketh them to will; [...] Yet, nevertheless, He enforceth not the will.”"
^Tomline 1818, pp. 251–255. "The joint agency of God and man, in the work of human salvation, is pointed out in the following passage: "Let us work out our own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure" [...] some sects contend for the irresistible impulses of grace [...] [this] opinion seems irreconcilable with the free agency of man [...] let the will of man be admitted to be its handmaid, but such an one as is free [...] when it is freely excited by the admonitions of preventing grace, when it is prepared as to its affections, strengthened and assisted as to its powers and faculties, a man freely and willingly co-operates with God".
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