:: St. Stephen's Musings ::

:: Wednesday, June 02, 2004 ::

St. Maximus the Confessor and the Reformed Tradition

Christopher Jones eloquently notes, in the comments at John's blog, an interesting connection I also made a while back in regards to the link between Calvinist monergism and the ancient heresy of Monotheletism.

Jones says, "It seems clear to me that Calvinist monergism is the soteriological counterpart to Monotheletism. As the Monotheletes denied a human free will in Christ, so monergism denies a human free will in the redeemed. But Christ's humanity shows us what redeemed human nature is, and since He has a free human will, so must we."

Joel Garver, a respected Reformed blogger and professor, recent commented that "a theology of participation [synergy] in God was very much woven into the Reformed tradition" but I have yet to see a coherent Reformed counter to the kind of claims Christopher Jones and I have made.

Is there a Reformed response to the writings of, say, St. Maximus the Confessor?

Update: David gives a concise overview of the Reformed position on free will.

:: Karl :: 7:58:00 AM [Link] ::