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Document Details : Title: Augustine and Innovation Subtitle: Reconsidering his Rhetoric of 'Newness' in the Pelagian Controversy Author(s): KANTZER KOMLINE, Han-luen Journal: Augustiniana Volume: 75 Issue: 2 Date: 2025 Pages: 295-308 DOI: 10.2143/AUG.75.2.3294942 Abstract : In his anti-Pelagian corpus, Augustine repeatedly affirms the goodness of newness. His affirmations fall into two broad categories. Augustine characterizes newness as flowing from God but also as a defining feature of a human life well-lived. Its source is divine, its manifestation human. In the Pelagian controversy, Augustine articulates a vision of divine activity and human development that is saturated with language of newness. To highlight the pervasiveness of this positivity is to offer a new perspective on his anti-Pelagian rhetoric. Furthermore, Augustine’s understanding of grace as newness represents a new and potent Christian formulation of the radical positivity of newness. But the positivity of newness in Augustine’s account also attests to his thoroughgoing integration of his biblical inheritance. In this sense, his emphasis on newness is not new at all. |
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