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Total depravity
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==Roman Catholic and Orthodox perspectives== The [[Roman Catholic Church]] maintains that a person cannot, "be justified before God by his own works, ... without the grace of God through Jesus Christ",<ref>{{Cite web |title=CT06 β Council of Trent |url=https://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct06.html |access-date=2023-05-20 |website=history.hanover.edu |at=Session 6, canon 1}}</ref> thereby rejecting [[Pelagianism]] in accordance with the writings of Augustine and the [[Second Council of Orange]] (529).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Canons of the Council of Orange |url=https://reformed.org/documents/canons_of_orange.html |access-date=2023-05-20 |website=reformed.org}}</ref> However, even strictly Augustinian Catholics disagree with the Protestant doctrine of total depravity.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church β IntraText |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1C.HTM |access-date=2023-05-20 |website=www.vatican.va |at=Item 407 in section 1.2.1.7.}}</ref> Referring to Scripture and the Church Fathers,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church β IntraText |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P5M.HTM |access-date=2023-05-20 |website=www.vatican.va |at=Item 1730}}</ref> Catholicism views human free will as deriving from God's image because humans are created in God's image.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church β IntraText |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P5G.HTM |access-date=2023-05-20 |website=www.vatican.va |at=Items 1701β1709}}</ref> Accordingly, the [[Council of Trent]], at its sixth session (January 1547), condemned as heresy any doctrine asserting "since Adam's sin, the free will of man is lost and extinguished".<ref>{{Cite web |title=CT06 β Council of Trent |url=https://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct06.html |access-date=2023-05-20 |website=history.hanover.edu |at=Session 6, canon 5}}</ref> Regardless, a concept of radical depravity is stressed in some Catholic theological currents like [[Jansenism]] and [[Molinism]].{{clarify|date=April 2025}} The [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] embraces the "semi-Augustinian" position of [[John Cassian]] and also defends [[Augustine of Hippo]] relating to this doctrine. [[Seraphim Rose]], for example, contends that Augustine never denied the free will of every human,<ref>{{citation |title=The Place of Blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church | first =Fr. Seraphim | last = Rose |publisher= St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood |year= 1982 |isbn=0-938635-12-3}}</ref> thus he never taught total depravity. [[Chrysostomos II of Cyprus]] has asserted that Augustine's teaching might have been used and distorted in [[Western Christianity]] to produce innovative theologizing, and that it is not Augustine's fault.<ref>{{citation |title=Blessed Augustine of Hippo: His Place in the Orthodox Church β A Corrective Compilation |url=http://orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/bless_aug.aspx |publisher=Orthodox Christian Information Center}}</ref>
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