Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
📜 About Pelagius's ideas 🧑‍🎓 A follower of Pelagius
Pelagian

Pelagian

1 9.9
Relating to the belief that people are born without original sin and can choose to do good without God's help
  • adjective
  • /pəˈleɪdʒən/
  • Formal
: pelagiano
  • The debate centered on Pelagian ideas about human nature and moral responsibility.

Examples

  • The council condemned the Pelagian doctrine as heretical in the early fifth century.

  • His views on free will were considered distinctly Pelagian by his contemporaries.

  • The philosophy is Pelagian.

  • Don't be so Pelagian!

  • The philosopher's argument was rooted in a Pelagian understanding of free will and morality.

  • Many believed that the reforms were influenced by a Pelagian approach to ethics and human potential.

  • The debate centered on whether humanity possesses a Pelagian capacity for moral choice independent of divine intervention.

Antonyms

Calvinism
4 9.0

A Protestant belief that God alone decides who is saved

Augustinianism
  • Specialized
1 9.9

Christian teachings by Saint Augustine about God, sin, and grace

Surface Forms

Pelagian positive

Morphology

Pelagian = Pelagius (opaque) = Pelagius + an

The adjective is formed from the proper name Pelagius with the productive suffix -an, but understanding requires knowledge of the historical figure and theological doctrine, so learners cannot derive the meaning from the base alone.

Etymology

Pelagian comes from the name Pelagius, an early Christian teacher, and that name comes from the Greek pelagos meaning 'sea'. So a Pelagian idea is one that follows Pelagius's view that people are born without original sin and can choose to do good without special help from God.