Pelagianism

The heresy that human will is capable of achieving salvation without grace — condemned at Carthage (418 AD).

Pelagianism (from the British monk Pelagius, c. 360-420) holds that human beings have the natural capacity to choose the good and achieve salvation without the prior gift of divine grace. The will is uncorrupted by the Fall; grace assists but does not constitute the good act. Condemned at the Council of Carthage (418 AD). Orthodox theology rejects Pelagianism through its insistence on synergy: grace is the prior and enabling cause; the human will cooperates but does not independently initiate salvation. Semi-Pelagianism (the view that the human will initiates and grace assists) is also rejected.