Martin Thornton on St. Augustine and Predestination

In his book English Spirituality : An Outline of Ascetical Theology according to the English Pastoral Tradition, Martin Thornton surveys the English Catholic ascetical tradition, which he sees rooted in both the theologies and spiritual traditions of Latin Fathers beginning with SS. Augustine and Benedict, and as given shape by medieval theologians such as SS. Bernard and Thomas Aquinas.  In the context of the English Church, that spirituality takes more specific form through the influences of the Celtic Church, St. Anselm of Canterbury, the great English mystics Walter Hilton, Julian of Norwich, Richard Rolfe and Margery Kempe, and finally through the writings and practice of the Caroline Divines. 

As mentioned in a previous post, I found his comments on St. Augustine both informative and rewarding:

Experience insists on some kind of predestination: some are Christians, some are not, and no Christian can take credit for his own conversion.

Now, that is in a nutshell the argument I've made here at OJC about the Pauline-Augustinian doctrine of grace:  man is dead in sin and accordingly has no ability to understand the Gospel or to say "yes" to God's grace in his own power.  Grace must "prevent" ("precede") faith (Eph. 2:8-10; the Pauline-Augustinian doctrine of "prevenient grace"). 

Thornton is quick to add, however, that he has "tried to explain that Augustine's great importance is to lay the foundation of Christian spirituality, not to complete its superstructure", a comment that reminds me of what J.B. Mozley said of such "superstructures", whether Pelagian or Augustinian:  "All that we build upon either of (the root presuppositions of each system) must partake of the imperfect nature of the premise which supports it, and be held under a reserve of consistency with a counter conclusion from the opposite truth."

Indeed, Thornton,  in good Arminian fashion, speculates here whether or not "we may think of being 'elected', not to inevitable salvation, but to the Christian struggle on behalf of others."  Whatever the answer to that question may be, he concludes in good Augustinian fashion that the "Pelagian emphasis on austerity and rigour makes creative ascetical progress quite impossible", while "Augustine's doctrine of prevenient grace permits it."  Indeed, our ultimate sanctification is all of grace.

Comments

[The Haunted Bookman]

Dear EP,

Isn't this exactly how the Reformers tended to treat the subject? Calvin himself discouraged any speculation about God's predestination except as we see it mirrored in Christ crucified. Luther did so too. Great Catholics throughout history have vigorously defended the freedom of God to choose His own people -- but tethered this, as St. Augustine has done, to the sacramental ministry of the Church Militant. In other words, the Calvinists who like Augustine's doctrine of Predestination but reject his ecclesiology have unwittingly torn the doctrine from its proper habitat, which takes on a monstrous life of its own to no good end. I've seen this in action among the crazy Calvinist converts who just discovered God does the work -- but very little in the way of Christology and Ecclesiology are considered. Without that synoptic we stand to be thrown onto either despair or antinomianism.

[Embryo Parson]

HB, precisely.