East vs West

Monergism, Original Sin, and Semi-Pelagianism

"First, it must be stated emphatically that St. Augustine did not hold to monergism (a Reformation doctrine), but is in fact a synergist along with practically every other father and early Christian authority. As just one example, Augustine shares a concise analogy of a tree, illustrating the cooperation between both God and man in salvation (On the Grace of Christ 1.19.20). The grace of God first makes an evil tree good (at baptism), and then 'God co-operates in the production of fruit in good trees.'

"This is the position taken by the Second Synod of Orange (A.D. 529), a council curiously appealed to by Calvinists as 'patristic evidence' of both monergism and the Doctrines of Grace:

'According to the catholic faith we also believe that after grace has been received through baptism, all baptized persons have the ability and responsibility, if they desire to labor faithfully, to perform with the aid and cooperation of Christ what is of essential importance in regard to the salvation of their soul.'

"And regarding double-predestination (whether taught by Augustine or not), this council concludes:

'We not only do not believe that any are foreordained to evil by the power of God, but even state with utter abhorrence that if there are those who want to believe so evil a thing, they are anathema.'

"Semi-Pelagianism itself is also an invention of the sixteenth century, and does not exist in any discussions of the fifth or sixth (the term is coined in 1577). While Saints such as John Cassian and Vincent of Lérins are often wrongly associated with this fabricated heterodoxy, they are actually in agreement with-contra-monergism-the Second Synod of Orange. This council was an orthodox compromise between the isolated speculations of St. Augustine and that of the heretical Pelagians. St. Vincent himself mentions this debate in his Commonitory around the time of Chalcedon (A.D. 451), where he decries the doctrine of double-predestination. For those like Cassian, salvation is of Grace from beginning to end, while not ignoring both the reality and necessity of man's cooperation with that Grace from baptism to last breath." -- Gabe Martini, Why Are Lutherans Converting to Eastern Orthodoxy, February 22, 2014, OnBehalfOfAll.org