Pelagius's Defense of the Free Will

[Goswinus]

This book was written by Pelagius and explains his beliefs regarding the free-will that God has given to mankind. It was a short treatise composed of four books. These fragments are taken from Augustine's two book work entitled "On the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin". Unfortunately for those wishing to fully understand Pelagius' views Augustine is not a faithful quoter when it comes to his archenemy's writings. Augustine will quote him in one place, then repeat the quote later in a different way, each time wording it in such a way that best suits his argument. We are left to wonder if he has done this with all of the quotations that he has made from Pelagius' writings, perhaps exaggerating his statements to present them in an extreme light that the original author nevermeant. This would explain why two ecclesiastical synods, two popes, at least thirty-two bishops and several influential Christians could not find anything wrong with Pelagius' doctrinal stances.

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[Goswinus]

Replace his Biblical God by the Ultimate Reality, the Logos, the Buddha, Tao, etc and it still make sense and be acceptable.

I wonder where we stood today if Pelagianism or Celtic Christianity had prevailed in stead of the teaching of Augustine, which had Middle Eastern dualism and austerity sneak into European culture. For instance, our notion of death and dying would have been so different. Goethe's Stirb, Und Werde (Die and Become) would root out the fright and taboo that surrounds death and in stead, regarded it as a natural process to become more than life bounded by its rules and limitations, yet having them used to a type of existential upbreeding. If one would apply the Indo-european tripartite as context, the Father (Sky, Ultimate Reality, That-Which-Is) quickens us in the womb of the Mother (Life, earthly existence) and as the Son (us, exalted, like the Ressurected Christ or the Sun God in Heathenism) assume our final and greatest destiny. Eden or Annwn, no matter what denomination you are, is in this respect that realm of existence or dimension where we rise as our Archetypal Self.

Think of the sky, that despite the play of clouds and currents, the alternating cycle of night and day, possesses the quality of blue and stays therein true in itself. Life would be understood in a similar way and the temporart break of death, an agent or threshold, to attain immutable existence, ruling by itself, an archetype. It would fulfill the Buddhist idea of rebirth (think of the regenerative powers of a certain Timelord:)), but in stead of pursuing a repetitive downwards spiral, it would lead to a transfiguration, emulating and pefecting the general traits of an individual, beyond life and death.