Mark Olson on Pelagius and Eastern Orthodox Theology

The one devastating charge that is leveled frequently at Arminians is that we are Pelagians.  Since the teaching of Pelagius was condemned well in the past, this is supposed to either shut us up or send us into a spasm of defending ourselves from the charge. As far as I’m concerned, call me pelagian or semi-pelagian if you want.  I’m not going to fight over the possession of labels.

But Mark Olson, who is Eastern Orthodox and not Arminian, responds to Frank Turk in a post titled Free Will, Pelagius, and the East, and I find his reasoning particularly interesting.  The more I read of the eastern church fathers and of Eastern Orthodox theology, the better it sounds.

Mark makes another excellent point regarding Christian debates, however, which is:

… Different traditions, as part of their growing apart, develop their own terminology. Even where they use the same words, they don’t often have the same meaning. Thus the first step of any ecumenical discussion is to find a common language for communication. …

Just so.  It’s very easy to misunderstand the terminology used by folks in another tradition.  Consider “sola scriptura,” as an example, which is often thought in popular terms to mean that you can’t allow any other human to help you understand the Bible, but meant no such thing to the reformers.  A little time spent in understanding the terms goes a long way.

Go check out Mark’s complete post.  I think it is educational.