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Course 10 · Lesson 2.4

Monergism and synergism across the traditions

12 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 10 outline

Module 1: Sin and Human Nature

  1. Human beings in the image of God
  2. The fall in Scripture: Genesis 3 and Romans 5
  3. Original sin in Augustine and the Western tradition
  4. Ancestral sin and mortality in the Eastern tradition

Module 2: Grace and Free Will

  1. Pelagius and Augustine
  2. The church responds: semi-Pelagianism and the Council of Orange
  3. Luther and Erasmus on the bondage of the will
  4. Monergism and synergism across the traditions

Module 3: Justification and Sanctification

  1. Justification in Paul and James
  2. Justification by faith alone in the Lutheran and Reformed traditions
  3. The Catholic teaching and the Council of Trent
  4. Sanctification, holiness and theosis
  5. Recent ecumenical discussion of justification

Module 4: Predestination and Election

  1. Election and predestination in Scripture
  2. Augustine, Aquinas and Calvin on predestination
  3. Arminius, Wesley and conditional election
  4. Eastern and Catholic views on election and foreknowledge

Module 5: Atonement, Redemption and Adoption

  1. Atonement and its extent: for whom did Christ die?
  2. Redemption: the images of ransom, freedom and return
  3. Adoption: sons and daughters of God
  4. The order of salvation across the traditions

Module 6: Death, Resurrection and Judgment

  1. Death and the intermediate state
  2. The resurrection of the dead in Scripture and the creeds
  3. The final judgment: Christ the judge
  4. Purgatory, the Orthodox practice of praying for the dead, and the Protestant objection

Module 7: Heaven, Hell and the New Creation

  1. Heaven and the vision of God
  2. Hell: eternal torment, annihilationism and universal hope
  3. The fate of those who have not heard the gospel
  4. The new heavens and the new earth

Module 8: The Millennium and Christian Eschatological Traditions

  1. Revelation and apocalyptic literature
  2. Premillennial views, historic and dispensational
  3. Amillennial and postmillennial views
  4. Preterist, historicist and futurist approaches
  5. What the traditions hold in common about the end

All courses

Program / Course 10: Salvation and Eschatology / Lesson 2.4

What you will learn

  • Define monergism and synergism and explain why each term needs careful use.
  • State where Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Reformed and Arminian traditions stand on grace and free will, in their own terms.
  • Distinguish the beginning of salvation from its continuation, since traditions differ on one and not always on the other.
  • Identify what all five traditions agree on about the priority of grace.

The big idea

Monergism means that God alone works to bring a person to faith. Synergism means that God and the human will work together. The terms are useful maps, but they hide as much as they show. Lutheran and Reformed churches are monergist about conversion. Catholic, Orthodox and Arminian churches are synergist in some sense, but each insists that grace comes first and that human cooperation is itself empowered by grace. None teaches that people save themselves, and none teaches that people are puppets.

Key terms

Monergism
From Greek words meaning ‘one working.’ The teaching that God alone acts to bring a person to new life and faith.
Synergism
From Greek words meaning ‘working together.’ The teaching that the human will cooperates with God’s grace in conversion or salvation.
Regeneration
New birth. In Reformed teaching, God’s act of giving new spiritual life, which comes before and enables faith.
Effectual calling
A Reformed term for God’s call that certainly brings the elect to faith. Critics call the same idea irresistible grace.
Prevenient grace
Grace that comes before a person’s choice. Arminians teach that it is given to all and enables a free response.
Operative and cooperative grace
Terms used by Augustine and Aquinas. Operative grace acts on the will to change it. Cooperative grace works with the will once changed.
Synergy (Orthodox use)
The Eastern teaching that salvation is a cooperation of divine grace and human freedom, in which grace always takes the initiative.

Background

The terms monergism and synergism came into common use in the sixteenth-century Lutheran debates. A group of Lutherans around Philip Melanchthon, later called Philippists, was accused of synergism by others, who insisted that the human will does nothing in conversion. The Formula of Concord (1577) settled the dispute for Lutherans. Later Reformed and Arminian theologians used the words to describe the debate between them. Today the terms are used across traditions, even though the Catholic and Orthodox churches did not define their teaching in those terms.

A warning applies: the words describe where a tradition places the decisive cause of conversion, but they do not capture how it speaks of the whole Christian life. Every tradition in this lesson says that after a person has been brought to God, God and the believer work together in the pursuit of holiness. The disagreement concerns the beginning, and what the human will can do at that point.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The question stated carefully

Suppose that God gives a person the grace to turn toward him. The question is whether the person’s turning is entirely produced by that grace, so that in the moment of conversion the will is only acted upon, or whether grace enables the will to act and the will in fact acts. Monergists give the first answer. Synergists give the second.

There are really two sub-questions. Is grace resistible, so that a person might refuse it? And is it given equally to all, so that the difference between those who believe and those who do not lies in the response? Traditions can answer these differently, which is why the labels are rough.

Step 2: Lutheran and Reformed monergism

The Formula of Concord teaches that in spiritual things the human understanding and will cannot by their own natural powers begin, effect or cooperate in conversion. Conversion is the work of the Holy Spirit through Word and sacrament. Lutherans also teach that grace can be resisted, and that people who are lost are lost by their own resistance, not by God’s rejection. This is a feature that distinguishes them from the Reformed.

The Westminster Confession teaches effectual calling: God, in his appointed time, renews the will and determines it to what is good, and effectually draws the elect to Jesus Christ, yet in such a way that they come most freely, being made willing by his grace. Reformed teachers add that the elect do not resist this grace in the end. They say that regeneration precedes faith and that faith is the gift that follows it.

Step 3: Catholic cooperation

The Council of Trent teaches that the beginning of justification comes from God’s prevenient grace, without any merit on the part of the person. It also teaches that a person is disposed to justification by freely assenting to and cooperating with this grace. Canon 4 of the decree on justification condemns anyone who says that the free will, moved and awakened by God, does nothing by assenting to God’s call, or that it cannot dissent if it wishes. Canon 5 condemns the view that free will was lost after Adam’s sin.

Catholic theologians, following Aquinas, explain that God moves the will in a way that fits its nature, so that the act is fully God’s and fully the person’s. Debates between Dominicans and Jesuits in the sixteenth century, over how to reconcile God’s grace with human freedom, were never settled by the church, which permits both schools.

Step 4: Orthodox synergy

Orthodox theology holds that the human person is a free participant in salvation, called to cooperate. The Greek fathers, such as Chrysostom, taught that God does not save a person against his will, and that every good begins with grace while the person must freely receive it. The idea is not that two equal partners meet halfway. Grace always has the initiative, and the human response is itself an answer to a call.

Orthodox writers do not usually speak of a single moment of conversion in the Protestant sense. They describe salvation as a lifelong path that begins in baptism and continues in the sacraments, prayer and repentance.

Step 5: Arminian and Wesleyan evangelical synergism

Arminius and the Remonstrants, in 1610, taught that grace is the beginning, continuation and completion of all good, so that no one can think, will or do good without it. They also taught that this grace is not irresistible. Wesley called it prevenient grace and said it is given to every person, restoring enough freedom to respond.

Arminians describe their view as evangelical synergism, to mark that it is not Pelagian: faith is a response, not a work, and it earns nothing. A person who believes has no ground for boasting. Calvinist critics reply that making the response decisive makes the person the final cause of the difference between the saved and the lost, and Arminians answer that receiving a gift is not earning it.

  1. When someone receives a gift, is receiving an act that earns anything?
  2. Is the image of a drowning person who is pulled out by a rescuer a good picture of grace? Why or why not?
  3. What is gained by saying that grace is resistible? What is lost?
  4. What do ‘most freely’ and ‘made willing’ mean in the Westminster Confession’s description?
  5. Why do Catholics and the Orthodox avoid the language of a single moment of conversion?
  6. How should a church preach to someone who says, ‘I am not sure I can believe’?

Examples

A Lutheran and a Reformed pastor

Two pastors agree that the sinner contributes nothing to conversion. One says that a person can resist the Spirit and be lost, and that the reason for this is a mystery. The other says that God’s call, for the elect, is effective and cannot finally fail. Each thinks the other’s position raises a difficulty. They share the same account of the helplessness of the will and differ on what follows. (A constructed example.)

A Catholic and a Methodist compare notes

A Catholic and a Methodist both say that grace comes before any response. Both say that the response is a real human act. They find that they differ more on justification and the sacraments than on the beginning of faith. The conversation surprises them, because they had expected a wider gap. (A constructed example.)

An Orthodox catechist

An Orthodox teacher tells a class that Christ stands at the door and knocks (Revelation 3:20). He adds that the door is opened with the very strength that he gives. The class discusses whether this image preserves both initiative and freedom. (A constructed example.)

Different perspectives

Catholic

Grace is a free gift that precedes all human merit. Human beings are able to assent to it or to reject it, and when they assent, the assent is itself moved by grace. Catholics reject the claim that the will does nothing in conversion, and they also reject any claim that it can begin the process on its own.

Orthodox

Salvation is the work of God in which human beings are invited and enabled to participate. The Orthodox hold that synergy does not make humans equal partners with God. Grace is first and constant. The person accepts, cooperates and grows throughout life.

Lutheran

The unconverted person is spiritually dead and can do nothing toward conversion. God alone gives new life through Word and sacrament. The converted person cooperates with the Spirit in sanctification. Grace can be resisted, and the lost are lost by their own fault.

Reformed

God’s effectual call renews the will, so that the elect come freely and certainly to Christ. Regeneration precedes faith. Grace is not forced, but it is not defeated. The Reformed regard this as the plain teaching of Ephesians 2 and John 6, and as the only ground of full assurance.

Arminian and Wesleyan

Grace is necessary for every good, and prevenient grace is given to all so that anyone may respond. Grace can be resisted, and the response of faith is the person’s own act, yet not meritorious. Arminians see this as preserving both the glory of grace and the justice of God in judgment.

Why it matters

These labels are useful for a first map, but real disagreements are found in the details. A reader who understands the five positions can hear a sermon or read a confession and ask where the decisive cause is placed. It also helps with courtesy: no tradition in this lesson teaches that salvation is earned, and no tradition teaches that people are puppets. Seeing that clearly makes a fair conversation possible.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Synergism means that people save themselves partly.

Correction: Catholic, Orthodox and Arminian teachers all say that the ability to cooperate is itself given by grace and that nothing is earned. The cooperation is a response to grace, not a contribution on equal footing.

Misunderstanding: Monergism means that people are robots.

Correction: Lutheran and Reformed teachers say that those who come to Christ come willingly, because grace makes them willing. They deny that God forces the will from outside.

Misunderstanding: Lutherans and Calvinists teach the same thing about grace.

Correction: They agree that conversion is God’s work alone. Lutherans hold that grace can be resisted and reject double predestination. Reformed teachers hold that grace is effectual for the elect.

Misunderstanding: The Orthodox and Catholics hold the same view.

Correction: Both teach cooperation under the priority of grace, but they use different language and different philosophical categories, and the Orthodox do not share the Western debates on merit and the nature of actual grace.

Knowledge check

What do monergism and synergism mean?

Monergism means that God alone works to bring a person to faith. Synergism means that God and the human will work together. The terms apply most clearly to conversion. Within each tradition, all agree that after conversion the believer works with God, and none says that the human cooperation is earned or independent of grace.

How does the Lutheran view differ from the Reformed view?

Both teach that conversion is God’s work alone. Lutherans hold that grace can be resisted and that those who are lost are lost by their own resistance, without any decree to reprobation. Reformed teachers hold that God’s effectual call surely brings the elect to faith and that regeneration comes before faith.

What does the Council of Trent teach about the will in conversion?

Trent teaches that the beginning of justification comes from God’s prevenient grace, without prior merit. A person is disposed to justification by freely assenting to and cooperating with that grace. The council condemns both the view that the free will does nothing and the view that it was lost after Adam.

Why do Arminians say their position is not Pelagian?

Arminians teach that without grace a person can do no good, so the first movement toward God is itself enabled by prevenient grace. The response of faith is received, not earned, and gives no ground for boasting. They distinguish this from Pelagius, who taught that the will could act well by natural power.

Think it through

  1. Which of the five accounts do you find most natural, and what experience or reading has shaped that?
  2. Is a freely given gift diminished if the receiver can refuse it? Is it diminished if the receiver cannot?
  3. Choose one other tradition and describe its view in a way its own members would recognize.

Independent assignment

One page, five traditions

In your notebook, write one page of about 500 words. Create a table with five rows (Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Reformed, Arminian) and three columns: the state of the will after the fall, the role of grace in the beginning of faith, and whether grace can be resisted. Fill each cell with one sentence taken from or based on that tradition’s own statement. Under the table, write a paragraph on which two traditions are closest and which are furthest apart, with reasons.

Further study