Monotheletism
What I'm a bit confused about is that I thought Monotheletism was a christological heresy, not an anthropological one.
My recollection of the original discussion in the comments to this post on my blog is that Chris J wasn't saying that monotheletism is itself an anthropological heresy, but that the error of monotheletism easily lends itself to the error of saying that a regenerate person has no will of their own (and I dare say this could work in reverse, too).
On reflection, it may be unfair to accuse Calvinism of "hyper-monergism" (though that's not to say that there aren't plenty of Calvinists who might veer in that direction) or of monotheletist tendencies.
Calvinism does not teach that the renewed human will is not a true will. Quite the opposite, as I recall: the Holy Spirit regenerates us, giving us a renewed will. The regenerate person then exercises that will in believing in Christ and is thus justified. The conceptual order (there is no temporal separation between the three) is then regeneration-faith-justification. Faith is only indirectly a gift of God (Eph.2) - the true gift is a regenerate heart, and then a regenerate heart "naturally" exercises faith in Christ.
This contrasts with the Lutheran position, which is - please correct me if I'm wrong, this is the product of profound theological reflection in the shower this morning - more a case of "faith-justification-regeneration" (with, again, this being only a conceptual order, not a temporal one). In other words, God creates faith in us by the Word and Sacraments, and we are then united to Christ, and in Him we are justified and renewed.
Originally posted in June 2004
My recollection of the original discussion in the comments to this post on my blog is that Chris J wasn't saying that monotheletism is itself an anthropological heresy, but that the error of monotheletism easily lends itself to the error of saying that a regenerate person has no will of their own (and I dare say this could work in reverse, too).
On reflection, it may be unfair to accuse Calvinism of "hyper-monergism" (though that's not to say that there aren't plenty of Calvinists who might veer in that direction) or of monotheletist tendencies.
Calvinism does not teach that the renewed human will is not a true will. Quite the opposite, as I recall: the Holy Spirit regenerates us, giving us a renewed will. The regenerate person then exercises that will in believing in Christ and is thus justified. The conceptual order (there is no temporal separation between the three) is then regeneration-faith-justification. Faith is only indirectly a gift of God (Eph.2) - the true gift is a regenerate heart, and then a regenerate heart "naturally" exercises faith in Christ.
This contrasts with the Lutheran position, which is - please correct me if I'm wrong, this is the product of profound theological reflection in the shower this morning - more a case of "faith-justification-regeneration" (with, again, this being only a conceptual order, not a temporal one). In other words, God creates faith in us by the Word and Sacraments, and we are then united to Christ, and in Him we are justified and renewed.
Originally posted in June 2004
posted by John H | 1:30 PM
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