harmonyperson’s free will and freeing it from its bondage to sin; it also possesses
the ability to heal people. Augustine distinguishes three types of grace:
prevenient grace prepares humans for conversion; operative grace stresses
how God works on the sinner without any assistance; cooperative grace
refers to God’s collaboration with the sinner to achieve regeneration and
growth in holiness. During the Middle Ages, Augustine’s insights into
grace are developed more systematically by Thomas Aquinas, who dis-
tinguishes between actual grace, a freely given grace, and habitual grace
that means a created habit of grace within the soul. Habitual grace refers
to something that happens in the soul that makes it acceptable to God.
During the Reformation period, Martin Luther stresses “justification by
faith alone.” By this he means the justification of the sinner is based on
the grace of God and is received by the sinner through faith; God does
what is necessary to save a sinner, and that faith is a gift of God.
The distinctive Catholic and Protestant views of grace are re-enacted
in southern India by the Śrī Vaishnavism sect, which split into two major
schools over the issue of grace during the fourteenth century. The so-
called Cat-hold School defines surrender to God as receptivity or lack of
opposition to divine grace, similar to a mother cat carrying her kittens,
which entails no effort on their part. This suggests that God takes the
initiative, saving a person without that individual expending any effort.
In contrast to this school, the so-called Monkey-hold School argues that
a person must strive to receive God’s grace by good deeds similar to a
young monkey holding onto its mother as it is being transported.
Further reading: McGrath (1994); Olson (2007); Osborne (1990)HARMONY
This concept is related cross-culturally to being in agreement, to concord,
order, stability, and security. In some religious cultures, it assumes an
even wider meaning, such as the ancient Egyptian notion of Ma’at that
suggests what is straight, right, true, truthful, and righteous, and which
also plays the role of an unchanging, eternal, and cosmic force estab-
lished at the beginning of creation. Ma’at is a paradigm for a just and
proper relationship on a broad plane that includes rulers, subjects, divine
beings, and the cosmos.
Everything and everyone is subject to it. On Egyptian inscriptions,
Ma’at is identified as the daughter of Re, the Sun god, or she is connected
to Ptah, called the Great Artificer and famous as a god of law and order.