Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Grace in Practice quote:

"People become semi-Pelagians the day (after) they become Christians. This is the heart of it. People in the world, including Christians, are Pelagians by nature. They want to do it for themselves. 'Control' is the key word or concept. But control fails massively at some specific, vulnerable point of opening. When this happens, people are undone and they open up to grace...But the moment things are patched up a bit, life morphs back toward control, into semi-Pelagianism. Semi-Pelagianism is the compromise Christians force between the grace that saved them and the Pelagianism inherent in their human nature. It is the Achilles' heel that besets Christians and all the Christian churches." (pp. 92-93)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

great quote!

Anonymous said...

For the most brilliant illustation of this central problem, see Flannery O'Connor's short story, "The Turkey". Only at the point of total weakness before God, stripped clean by His loving and awful judgment, are we ready for His grace, over and over again throughout life. At the end of that story, the boy becomes the turkey, himself chased by Something Awful. Only at that point will he give up on achievement and reward. As with all O'Connor, God is there, in the next sentence after the last written one.

Anonymous said...

You have basically dscribed my attitude towards God.

I'd rather do it myself. (until the going gets a bit tough)