Soteriology

[JESOd]

What is the major difference between St. Augustine's doctrine of predestination and John Calvin's? As I am seeing it, St. Augustine would agree with a 5-point Calvinist, BUT would not go as far as the 6th point, which is double predestination. That basically, Augustin believes a person is predestined to go to Heaven, and the non-elect go to Hell by some sort of a defualt. Instead of Calvin's view that there are the elect that are predestined to Heaven and the others who are predestined to Hell.

In Him,
Shane

[Laudate_Dominum]

This is a rather complicated issue, but it seems quite clear that Calvinist soteriology has elements which are not compatible with what Augustine actually taught and cannot be considered faithful to Augustine.

As far as predestination is concerned the big difference is that Calvin taught double-predestination and Augustine did not. It is a rather complex and nuanced subject, but in spite of this assertion by certain heretics, Augustine did not teach double-predestination.

[quote]"the eternal choice of the elect by God is very real, very gratuitous, and constitutes the grace of graces; but this decree does not destroy the Divine will to save all men, which, moreover, is not realized except by the human liberty that leaves to the elect full power to fall and to the non-elect full power to rise."[/quote]

Your assessment sounds correct to some extent, but I would still say that there are some essential differences between Augustine and Calvin that make the statement "Augustine would agree with a 5-point Calvinist" inaccurate.

Rather than going into extreme detail in this Q&A I would like to refer you to some links which may be helpful in understanding the intricacies of this issue:

*digging up links*...

The Teaching of St. Augustine of Hippo (Catholic Encyclopedia)
[url="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02091a.htm"]http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02091a.htm[/url]
This article is quite good and, especially in the second half, it compares Augustine's position with that of Calvin highlighting differences.

Dialogue: Is Sola Fide (Faith Alone) a Legitimate Development of Patristic and Augustinian Soteriology?
[url="http://web.archive.org/web/20030417090642/ic.net/~erasmus/RAZ468.HTM"]http://web.archive.org/web/20030417090642/...smus/RAZ468.HTM[/url]
A Dave Armstrong debate in which some of these issues are discussed.

St. Augustine: Which Christian Body is Closer Theologically to His Teaching?: Reformed Protestants or Present-Day Catholics?
[url="http://web.archive.org/web/20030604155026/ic.net/~erasmus/RAZ474.HTM"]http://web.archive.org/web/20030604155026/...smus/RAZ474.HTM[/url]
A Dave Armstrong essay which discusses the issues at hand.


God bless you.