Total depravity Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Roman Catholic and Orthodox perspectives== The [[Roman Catholic Church]] maintains that a person cannot, "be justified before God by his own works, ... without the grace of God through Jesus Christ",<ref>{{Cite web |title=CT06 β Council of Trent |url=https://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct06.html |access-date=2023-05-20 |website=history.hanover.edu |at=Session 6, canon 1}}</ref> thereby rejecting [[Pelagianism]] in accordance with the writings of Augustine and the [[Second Council of Orange]] (529).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Canons of the Council of Orange |url=https://reformed.org/documents/canons_of_orange.html |access-date=2023-05-20 |website=reformed.org}}</ref> However, even strictly Augustinian Catholics disagree with the [[Protestantism|Protestant]] doctrine of total depravity.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church β IntraText |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1C.HTM |access-date=2023-05-20 |website=www.vatican.va |at=Item 407 in section 1.2.1.7.}}</ref> Referring to Scripture and the Church Fathers,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church β IntraText |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P5M.HTM |access-date=2023-05-20 |website=www.vatican.va |at=Item 1730}}</ref> Catholicism views human free will as deriving from God's image because humans are created in God's image.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church β IntraText |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P5G.HTM |access-date=2023-05-20 |website=www.vatican.va |at=Items 1701β1709}}</ref> Accordingly, the [[Council of Trent]], at its sixth session (January 1547), condemned as heresy any doctrine asserting "since Adam's sin, the free will of man is lost and extinguished".<ref>{{Cite web |title=CT06 β Council of Trent |url=https://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct06.html |access-date=2023-05-20 |website=history.hanover.edu |at=Session 6, canon 5}}</ref> Anyhow the concept of radical depravity is sortway stressed in some Catholic theological currents like [[Jansenism]] and [[Molinism]]. The [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] embraces the "semi-Augustinian" position of [[John Cassian]] and also defends [[Augustine of Hippo]] relating to this doctrine. [[Seraphim Rose]], for example, contends that Augustine never denied the free will of every human,<ref>{{citation |title=The Place of Blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church | first =Fr. Seraphim | last = Rose |publisher= St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood |year= 1982 |isbn=0-938635-12-3}}</ref> thus he never taught total depravity. Archbishop [[Chrysostomos II of Cyprus|Chrysostomos]] has likewise asserted that Augustine's teaching might have been used and distorted in [[Western Christianity]] to produce innovative theologizing, and it is not Augustine's fault.<ref>{{citation |title=Blessed Augustine of Hippo: His Place in the Orthodox Church β A Corrective Compilation |url=http://orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/bless_aug.aspx |publisher=Orthodox Christian Information Center}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page