Religious Determinism

Augustine

St Augustine was an early Christian theologian. He belonged to the Catholic church where he was very influential. His belief in predestination started in response to the ideas of Pelagius, who believed that all humans have freewill. He said that if God was really so powerful, he would be able to control the decisions of people, not them choosing freely.

1) Adam and Eve's original sin is a defect in character. This is called concupiscence

2) The moral agent (i.e, us) can no longer follow God's reason

3) Moral agents (We) don't know the difference between good and evil

4) Sin is passed on through Adam and Eve (we are all descended through them) It is Seminally present

5) Augustine uses the letter of St Paul's letter to the Romans (Romans 5:12) to back this up. It basically talks about how sin is present in all of us.

6) All humanity is born with massa peccati (lump of sin)

7) we can't do anything good.

8) Humanity is still born with free will- Liberium arbitruim.

9) Concupiscence overrides free will.

10) We can't make choices using free will because of concupiscence has already predestines us to do wrong.

11) While this seem morbid, God's grace extends to humanity.

12) God chooses certain people to be free of concupiscence

13) These people are known as the elect.

14) Those who are not chosen are called 'reprobates'.

15) The elect do not have free will.

16) They have been chosen by God (predestined)

17) Sin makes is clear that humanity has no free will. Whether they are predestined to be the elect, or the reprobates.

John Calvin

John Calvin (1509-1564) presented his predestination theory. This was called the 'Doctrine of Election' (The Doctrine of the Living Saints) The basis of this is the belief in God's will of 'sovereignty of God'.

Like Augustine, Calvin said that humanity all are born with sin because of Adam and Eve. We cannot choice to obey or disobey God's call (through Jesus) because we are wrapped up in sin.Calvin said all humans beings are totally depraved so that there is no god in anyone.

This does not mean that moral agents (us!) are always carrying out sinful acts but that we are too far to be saved. There is no hope for us.

But he said that not everyone is predestined to eternal damnation by God.

Some moral agents have salvation (or are saved!) by God. Calvin's theory said that God alone determines who will be saved.

Calvin wished his theory to be sola scripture, or based on the Bible.

He believed that salvation was not a human choice but a divine one. This is reflected in the Westminister Confession of Faith that God 'freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass'.

Elect

The elect are the people who have been chosen by God. No one knows what group they belong to, but it is possible to guess or be aware. The first indicator: The 'calling of God'. Calvin meant that the moral agent would internally have some sort of certainty that God has chosen them for salvation. They might also show that sort of personality that would be expected. They could still be sinful but God predestines them to have faith in Jesus. Therefore they cannot resist the calling on their lives to seek forgiveness,

Reprobates

The Reprobates are probably more obvious to discover, said Calvin. They might have traits such as anger, or laziness.

They could still be morally good but ultimately fall to sin.

They are deaf and blind to the message of the gospel.

Calvin said that it is not possible to know which group people belong to. However, this is the mystery of God. By not knowing, people feel a sense of reverence and wonder towards God. He said that is a fixed number of elect and reprobates and so the moral agent cannot do anything to change it.

Synod of Dort

After Calvin's death, his supporters summed up his theory into five points. They can be memorised with the acronym Tulip

T: Total depravity. Humans always will choose evil because of the fall.

U: Unconditional election. God alone choose the elect based on his own will. Nothing can be done to change this.

L: Limited atonement. Christ only died for the elect.

I: Irresistible grace. Jesus' grace cannot be resisted by the elect.

P: Perseverance of Elect. The elect will remain in God's hand until they are taken to heaven. God's salvation will continue. The elect cannot give up their faith because of the tug that they feel from grace.

Implications

It means that the omnipotency of God is preserved.

God's omnibeneolence is also preserved because God does not simply let all of humanity become damned (of course, it has been criticized because only some people are saved)

Furthermore, why should God punish something for behaviour that he has controlled?

If all behaviour is controlled by God, evil must then be due to God.

If God really does control humans, then that does not show God as omnibenevolent nature. He could be uncaring or caring.

If a person is predestined, it could be asked whether prayer is still meaningful. If God predetermines humanity, there is not point is asking for anything. They might not get it, which would be a waste.

However, one could say that prayer has a meaning for the elect because it served as a way to get to God.

Predestination does not mean that miracles do not happen at all. Aquinas said that a primary miracles was one caused directly by God. therefore, it could have been predestined before the creation.

Even a secondary miracle could also be predetermined by God. This was supported by C S Lewis who said that God enables miracles to happen by bringing in new laws of nature.

On the other hand, the even of miracles happening due to random prayer becomes a problem for predestination.