The Pelagian position does not recognize any defect at all, and holds that by nature alone a man can be saved. On the other hand, the Eastern Fathers teach that man must cooperate with deifying energy in order to be saved, which brings about the reintegration of his hypostasis with his nature, while transcending both as he enters into the uncreated life and glory of the Holy Trinity.
Todd,
But you seem to be reducing the defect or "wound" to physical death and corruption alone. Do you have any patristic support for this position - the position which explicitly excludes the loss of original justice as a consequence for Adam's sin and reduces original sin to physical death and corruption?
Here is a list of some of Pelagius' teachings that were branded as heretical:
1. Even if Adam had not sinned, he would have died.
2. Adam's sin harmed only himself, not the human race.
3. Children just born are in the same state as Adam before his fall.
4. The whole human race neither dies through Adam's sin or death, nor rises again through the resurrection of Christ.
5. The (Mosaic Law) is as good a guide to heaven as the Gospel.
6. Even before the advent of Christ there were men who were without sin.
The article from the Catholic Encyclopedia is an interesting read:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11604a.htmHere is a link to the actual canons of Carthage, instead of just the summary I provided before:
http://www.seanmultimedia.com/Pie_Council_Of_Carthage_May_1_418.htmlCanon 2 is of particular interest to our discussion.
Can. 2 �If any man says that new-born children need not be baptized, or that they should indeed be baptized for the
remission of sins, but that they have in them no original sin inherited from Adam which must be washed away in the
bath of regeneration, so that in their ease the formula of baptism �for the remission of sins� must not be taken literally,
but figuratively, let him be anathema; because, according to Romans 5:12, the sin of Adam (in quo omnes peccaverunt) has passed upon all.�
In ICXC,
Gordo
