CS Lewis said that the courtly love tradition arose from “Ovid misunderstood.” Medieval soteriology might be said to have arisen from “Augustine misunderstood.” Everyone was Augustinian and no one wanted to be Pelagian, but Augustine’s actual teaching was confused by transmission problems both of his own works and of conciliar endorsements of his doctrine. McGrath notes that the strongly Augustinian Council of Orange (529) remained virtually unknown between the 10th and 16th centuries, and Pelagian works and even one of Pelagius’s own works (!) circulated under Augustine’s name. This provides important background to the Reformation contests over Augustine’s legacy.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Dreadful Christ of Pär Lagerkvist
It’s dangerous to meet a god,” says the disgraced Pythia in Pär Lagerkvist’s The Sibyl. Her observation…
The Possibility of Possibility
"Might could” is a Southern expression meaning “maybe I could” or “I might be able to,” conveying…
The False Promise of No Contact
Around the time nineteen-year-old Alice began cutting ties with her family, she announced on social media that…
