…history of Christian theology, the whole problem was thrashed out at the beginning of the fifth century. in the great controversy between Pelagius on the one hand and St. Augustine on the other. It's worth going into this a little bit because it seems to…

…bit because it seems to summarise in an older tradition these problems which still vex us, the problems of nature and nurture. Pelagius was apparently a Briton. He came from either from Scotland or possibly from Ireland, and brought up in the traditions of…

…bondage of the will to evil. I mean, granted this doctrine, why make any effort to behave a little bit better? And Pelagius evidently was an early example of British practicality and empiricism, and he decided that what was necessary was reform of social…

…extremely important in the history of Christian dogma, but it's worth pointing out certain peculiarities of the Pelagian doctrine. Pelagius insisted upon the fact that men were born without any inherited characteristics. He said that men were born non-pleni,…

…fact of variability is that liberty is a very precious thing. After all, if we were all the same as Helvetius pointed out, or as Pelagius pointed out, or as Watson pointed out in his early days, if at birth we were all the same then there would be no…