Augustine of Hippo and Martin Luther on Original Sin and Justification of the Sinner

Book excerpt: Pereira demonstrates how Augustine came to break with the patristic soteriology and anthropological theology and adopted the radicalism of grace with which he faced the theologians associated with the fifth-century Pelagianis. It was precisely that radicalism of grace that made of Augustine Luther's favourite theologian. The same radicalism was adopted by Luther in his opposition to the recentiores doctores, the Nominalist theologians. Without overlooking the crucial role played by the Pauline corpus, the author says that Augustine's anti-Pelagian thesis were at the core of the young Luther's soteriological and anthropological claims and were the driving force behind Luther's cry for reformation.