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Document Details :

Title: A Pauline Theology of Grace and the Spirit's Gift of Love in Augustine's De spiritu et littera
Author(s): PIERCE, Alexander H.
Journal: Augustiniana
Volume: 70    Issue: 2   Date: 2020   
Pages: 203-226
DOI: 10.2143/AUG.70.2.3289071

Abstract :
This paper explores how in his early 'anti-Pelagian' treatise, De spiritu et littera, Augustine draws together Rom. 5:5; 1 Cor. 4:7; 2 Cor. 3:6; Gal. 5:6; and Phil. 2:13 to articulate his view that human righteousness is a work of God, which incorporates divine and human willing. Augustine’s constellation of these Pauline verses manifests his deepened assimilation of a Pauline theology of grace and gives expression to his refined language about the relationship between faith, grace, love, and the Holy Spirit. His strategic citations of these verses disclose a newfound clarity and precision on the cooperation of the Holy Spirit – through whom we are given to love – and the free exercise of the human will in conversion and in good works. In this way, this novel reading of Spir. et litt. shows how it anticipates what will become even clearer in Augustine’s later works, namely, the close association between faith and love in the grace of the Holy Spirit.

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