THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA Reassessing Pelagianism: Augustine, Cassian, and Jerome on the Possibility of a Sinless Life A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the School of Theology and Religious Studies Of The Catholic University of America In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor of Philosophy © Copyright All Rights Reserved By Stuart Squires Washington, D.C. 2013 Reassessing Pelagianism: Augustine, Cassian, and Jerome on the Possibility of a Sinless Life Stuart Squires, Ph.D. Director: Philip Rousseau, D.Phil. The classic understanding of the debate commonly called the “Pelagian Controversy” is that grace was the central issue at hand. This view may be traced back to Augustine, whose superior rhetorical skills successfully established the debate on his terms. As a result of this narrow, Augustinian lens, an assumption has been passed down through the centuries that his opponents were an organized and centralized movement bent on corrupting Christianity. This understanding, however, is dismissed today. Scholars now understand that the men who have been put under this umbrella term had a variety of interests and concerns. They, however, still have tried to determine a common theme that unites these men. A variety of responses have been given: an affirmation of free will, denial of original sin, preserving divine justice, defending the efficacy of baptism, and ethical conerns. These answers are inadequate as the single cause of the controversy. A more fruitful answer is that the tie that bound these men together was the claim that it is possible to live a life free of sin. Although scholars, such as Rackett and Winrich Löhr, have begun to investigate the variety of ways that sinlessness was understood by Pelagius, Caelestius, and Julian of Eclanum, little work has been done with this question regarding their interlocutors. This dissertation intends to fill this lacuna by analyzing Augustine, Cassian, and Jerome concerning the possibility—or impossibility—of living a life free of sin. By doing so, it will attempt to accomplish several goals: (1) it will construct a narrative of how these fifth-century Fathers reacted to their opponents’ claim of the possibility of sinlessness. (2) It will then demonstrate that the theological views of the Church Fathers were not uniformly Augustinian; they were much more diffuse and variegated than previously argued. This dissertation by Stuart Squires fulfills the dissertation requirement for the doctoral degree in Historical Theology approved by Philip Rousseau, D.Phil., as Director, and by William Loewe, Ph.D. and Tarmo Toom, Ph.D., as Readers. ___________________________________ Philip Rousseu, D.Phil., Director ___________________________________ William Loewe, Ph.D., Reader ____________________________________ Tarmo Toom, Ph.D., Reader ii FOR MY FAMILY iii Contents Abbreviations vi Acknowledgements ix CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 Modern Scholarship’s Understanding of the Pelagians 1 Modern Scholarship’s Understanding of the Church Fathers 5 Argument 8 Method 9 Rufinus the Syrian, the Anonymous Sicilian, and Julian of Eclanum 11 Conclusion 25 CHAPTER TWO: AUGUSTINE 27 Introduction 27 De peccatorum meritis et remissione et De baptismo parvulorum 30 De spiritu et littera 33 De natura et gratia 34 De perfectione iustitiae hominis 38 De gestis Pelagii 42 The Council of Carthage of 418 44 Conclusion 48 CHAPTER THREE: CASSIAN 51 Introduction 51 Evagrius 52 Conference 22 and 23 60 De incarnatione 71 Conclusion 82 CHAPTER FOUR: JEROME 85 Introduction 85 Jerome’s Contribution to this Debate 87 Ad Ctesiphontem and Books I and II of Dialogi contra Pelagianos 90 A Shift between Books II and III of the Dialogi contra Pelagianos 93 Jerome’s Genealogy of Sinlessness 105 Conclusion 108 iv CHAPTER FIVE: CONTEXTS, DEFINITIONS, AND CRITIQUES 111 Introduction 111 Context: Augustine 112 Context: Cassian 122 Context: Jerome 128 Definition of Sinlessness: Augustine 135 Definition of Sinlessness: Cassian 139 Definition of Sinlessness: Jerome 139 Larger Critique: Augustine 144 Larger Critique: Cassian 151 Larger Critique: Jerome 156 Conclusion 160 CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION 162 Topics for Future Research 162 Implications for Scholarship: General 166 Implications for Scholarship: Augustine 168 Implications for Scholarship: Cassian 169 Implications for Scholarship: Jerome 174 Conclusion 176 BIBLIOGRAPHY 177 v Abbreviations Series Ancient Christian Writers ACW Ante-Nicene Fathers ANF Classics of Western Spirituality CWS Clavis Patrum Graecorum CPG Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers NPNF Patrologia Graeca PG Patrologia Latin PL Multiple Authors Epistula Ep. Anonymous Sicilian Ad Adolescentem Ad adol. De castitate De cast. De divitiis De div. De malis doctoribus et operibus fidei et de iudicio futuro De mal. De possibilitate non peccandi De poss. non. pecc. Honorificentiae tuae Hon. tuae Augustine Acta contra Fortunatum Manicheum C. Fort. Ad Cresconium grammaticum partis Donati Cresc. Confessiones Conf. Contra Academicos C. Acad. Contra duas epistulas Pelagianorum C. ep. Pel. Contra Iulianum opus imperfectum C. Jul. imp. Contra Iulianum C. Jul. Contra litteras Petiliani donatistae cirtensis Episcopi, libri iii C. litt. Pet. De gestis Pelagii Gest. Pel. De gratia Christi et de peccato originali Gr. et pecc. or. De haeresibus Haer. De natura et gratia Nat. et gr. De peccatorum meritis et remissione et De baptismo parvulorum Pecc. mer. De perfectione iustitiae hominis Perf. iust. De praedestinatione sanctorum Praed. sanct. De spiritu et littera Spir. et litt. Retractiones Retract. Calvin Institutio Christianae Religionis Inst. Christ. Rel. vi Cassian Collationes Coll. De incarnatione Domini contra Nestorium De inc. De institutis coenobiorum Inst. Evagrius Antirrhetikos Antir. De diversis malignis cogitationibus De div. mal. cog. De oratione De ora. Parktikos Prak. Sententiae ad virginem Sen. ad virg. Gennadius De viris inlustribus De vir. inlustr. Jerome Apologia adversus libros Rufini Apol. Commentarii in Ezechielem Com. in Ez. Contra Ioannem Hierosolymitanum C. Ioan. Contra Iovinianum C. Iov. Dialogi Contra Pelagianos Dial. Epistula 130: Ad Demetriadem Ep. 130 Praefatio in libro Hieremiae prophetae Praef in lib. Hier. Origen Commentaria in Epistolam B. Pauli ad Romanos Com. Rom. Orosius of Braga Liber Apologeticus, Contra Pelagianum Lib. Apol. Pelagius Epistula [ad amicum] de divinia lege Div. leg. Epistula ad Celantiam [matronan] Ad Cel. Epistula ad Claudiam de virginitate Virg. Epistula ad sacram Christi virginem Demetriadem Ad Dem. Expositiones xiii epistularum Pauli Expos. (ad Romanos) Liber de vita Christiana (Christianorum) Vit. Christ. Prosper of Aquitaine Epistula ad Augustinum Hipponensem Ep ad Aug. Pro Augustino liber contra collatorem C. coll. Rufinus of Aquiliea Apologia contra Hieronymum Apol. C. Hier. vii Rufinus the Syrian Liber de Fide Lib. Fid. viii Acknowledgements There are many people whom I would like to acknowledge for helping me with this project. First, I would like to thank Dr. Philip Rousseau, the chair of this dissertation, for his graciousness. His willingness to take on this project will never be forgotten. I would like to thank my committee, Drs. William Loewe and Tarmo Toom, for their generosity, insightful comments, and encouragement along the way. My colleagues at DePaul University have offered much guidance and shared many stories from their own experiences; in a special way, I would like to thank Dr. James Halstead, OSA, Dr. David Gitomer, and Dr. Peter Casarella for their wisdom and insight. Many friends gave me support, encouragement, and feedback, including Dr. Jared Ortiz, Jessica Seidman, and Andrew Staron. Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank my family for their love through the many years of graduate school. I could not have finished without them. ix CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Modern Scholarship’s Understanding of the Pelagians In the early fifth century, men such as Pelagius, Caelestius, Rufinus the Syrian, the Anonymous Sicilian, and Julian of Eclanum—often called “Pelagians”—engaged in a theological “pamphlet war”1 with Augustine of Hippo, Cassian, and Jerome.2 Over the centuries, this dispute, known as the “Pelagian Controversy,” has been seen as centrally concerned with the nature of grace, while other issues of theological anthropology and soteriology (such as baptism, free will, and predestination) have orbited around this preoccupation.3 Adolph von Harnack gives an exemplary definition of this classic understanding when he claims that “the crucial question” in this fight is centered on “whether grace is to be reduced to nature.”4 This line of thinking has continued into the 1 Gerald Bonner, "Pelagianism and Augustine," Augustinian Studies 23 (1992): 37. 2 Cassian is rarely included in any discussion of the “Pelagian Controversy.” Rather, he is usually relegated to the afterthought known as the “Semi-Pelagian Controversy.” One of the goals of this dissertation is to question these tidy categories and to argue that Cassian should be considered as much of a voice in the “Pelagian Controversy” as any of the other authors listed, even though his involvement started relatively late and after the imperial condemnations of Pelagius in 418. 3 John Ferguson does an excellent job of outlining the many issues of this controversy: sin, original sin, the possibility of sinlessness, the person of Jesus, grace, free will, the relationship between God and humanity, the law and the gospel, infant baptism, death, and prayer. John Ferguson,