the Augustinian anthropology and soteriology, i.e. in the doctrine of a universal fall in Adam, and
a partial redemption through Christ; both maintained that some men are saved by free grace, that
others are lost by their own guilt; and both confined the possibility of salvation to the present life
and to the limits of the visible church (which leads logically to the horrible and incredible conclusion
that the overwhelming majority of the human race, including all unbaptized infants, are eternally
lost). But the Augustinian party went back to absolute predestination, as the ultima ratio of God’s
difference of dealing with the saved and the lost, or the elect and the reprobate; while the
Semi-Augustinian party sought the difference rather in the merits or demerits of men, and maintained
along-side with a conditional predestination the universal benevolence of God and the universal
offer of saving grace (which, however, is merely assumed, and not at all apparent in this present
life). The Augustinian scheme is more theological and logical, the Semi-Augustinian more churchly
and practical. Absolute predestinarianism starts from the almighty power of God, but is checked
by the moral sense and kept within the limits of infralapsarianism, which exempts the holy God
from any agency in the fall of the race, and fastens the guilt of sin upon man. Relative
predestinarianism emphasizes the responsibility and salvability of all men, but recognizes also their
perfect dependence upon divine grace for actual salvation. The solution of the problem must be
found in the central idea of the holy love of God, which is the key-note of all his attributes and
works.
The practical difference between the catholic Semi-Augustinianism and the heterodox
Semi-Pelagianism is, as already remarked, very small. They are twin-sisters; they virtually ignore
predestination, and lay the main stress on the efficacy of the sacramental system of the historical
church, as the necessary agency for regeneration and salvation.
The Lutheran system, as developed in the Formula of Concord, is the evangelical counterpart
of the Catholic Semi-Augustinianism. It retains also its sacramental feature (baptismal regeneration
and the eucharistic presence), but cuts the root of human merit by the doctrine of justification by
faith alone.
Calvinism is a revival of Augustinianism, but without its sacramental and sacerdotal checks.
Arminianism, as developed in the Reformed church of Holland and among the Wesleyan
Methodists, and held extensively in the Church of England, is an evangelical counterpart of
Semi-Pelagianism, and differs from Lutheranism by teaching a conditional election and freedom
of the will sufficient to accept as well as to reject the universal offer of saving grace.
§ 123. The Doctrine of Scotus Erigena.
A complete ed. of the works of Scotus Erigena by H. J. Floss, 1853, in Migne’s "P. L.," Tom. 122.
The book De Praedestinatione in col. 355–440. Comp. the monographs on S. E. by Hjort (1823),
Staudenmaier (1834), Taillandier (1843), Christlieb (1860, and his art. in Herzog2 XIII. 788
sqq.), Hermens (1861), Huber (1861); the respective sections in Schröckh, Neander, Baur (on
the Trinity), Dorner (on Christology); and in the Histories of Philosophy by Ritter, Erdmann,
and Ueberweg. Also Reuter: Gesch. der relig. Aufklärung im Mittelalter (1875), I. 51–64 (a
discussion of Erigena’s views on the relation of authority and reason).
At the request of Hincmar, who was very anxious to secure learned aid, but mistook his man,
John Scotus Erigena wrote a book on Predestination (in 850), and dedicated it to Hincmar and his