# Synergism

In Christian theology, synergism refers to the cooperative effort between God and humanity in the process of salvation. Before Augustine of Hippo (354–430), synergism was almost universally endorsed. Later, it came to be reflected in the so-called Semi-Pelagian position and the Semi-Augustinian stance affirmed by the Second Council of Orange (529). Synergism is affirmed by both the Catholic Church, and Eastern Orthodoxy. It is also present in various Protestant denominations, such as Anabaptist churches, and is particularly prominent in those influenced by Arminian theology, such as the Methodist churches.

## Definition

Synergism comes from the Greek syn (with) and ergon (work) and refers to two or more sources working together. In Christian theology, it describes the cooperative effort between God and humanity in the process of salvation. It implies a free human participation in salvation.

## Theology
### Historical developments

Before Augustine (354–430), the synergistic view of salvation was almost universally endorsed.
Pelagius (c. 354–418), however, argued that humans could perfectly obey God by their own will. The Pelagian view is therefore referred to as "humanistic monergism". This view was condemned at the Council of Carthage (418) and Ephesus (431).
In response, Augustine proposed a view in which God is the ultimate cause of all human actions, a stance that aligns with soft determinism. The Augustinian view is therefore referred to as "divine monergism". However, Augustinian soteriology implied double predestination, which was condemned by the Council of Arles (475).
During this period, a moderate form of Pelagianism emerged, later termed Semi-Pelagianism. This view asserted that human will initiates salvation, rather than divine grace. The Semi-Pelagian view is therefore described as "human-initiated synergism".
In 529, the Second Council of Orange addressed Semi-Pelagianism and declared that even the inception of faith is a result of God’s grace. This highlights the role of prevenient grace enabling human belief. This view, often referred to as "Semi-Augustinian," is therefore described as "God-initiated synergism". The Council also rejected predestination to evil.

### Characterization of the Pelagian-Augustinian salvation framework

The Pelagian-Augustinian framework serves as a key paradigm for understanding contemporary forms of synergism. Augustine argued that prevenient grace is necessary to prepare the human will for conversion. He maintained that God predetermined parents to seek baptism for their newborns, linking water baptism to regeneration. Furthermore, he viewed the divine grace that brings about conversion as unfailing.
The Semi-Augustinian stance builds upon Augustinian thought, also associating regeneration with water baptism. However, it rejects predetermination, allowing space for human decision, particularly in the act of faith. Thus, it maintains that vocation and the gift of faith are divine actions through prevenient grace, while faith itself is a human action, and regeneration remains a divine action. The Semi-Pelagian position holds that vocation and conversion through faith are human actions, while the "increase of faith" bringing regeneration is a divine action. In Pelagianism, humans possess the innate capacity to obey God. Consequently, all steps of salvation are voluntary human actions.
Comparison of the authors' actions in the Pelagian - Augustinian salvation frameworks :
| Framework | Augustinianism | Semi-Augustinianism | Semi-Pelagianism | Pelagianism |
| Salvation process type | Divine monergism | God-initiated synergism | Human-initiated synergism | Humanistic monergism |
| Vocation | God | God | Human | Human |
| Conversion (gift of faith) | God | God | Human | Human |
| Conversion (faith) | God | Human | Human | Human |
| Regeneration | God | God | God | Human |

## Views among Christian denominations
### Denominations traditionally upholding synergism
#### Catholic theology

Synergism is an important part of the salvation theology of the Catholic Church. Following the Second Council of Orange (529), the Council of Trent (1545–63) reaffirmed the resistibility of prevenient grace and its synergistic nature. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) teaches that the ability of the human will to respond to divine grace is itself conferred by grace. This synergistic process applies to both justification and sanctification. The sacraments of the Catholic Church such as baptism and the Eucharist, are part of God's grace and are thus a vital element in the synergistic process of salvation.

#### Eastern Orthodox theology

In Eastern Orthodox theology, God's grace and the human response work together in a "cooperation" or "synergy". This perspective has historically presented less theological tension on this issue compared to the Christian West. In the salvation process, divine grace always precedes any human action. Man possesses libertarian freedom (as implied by the Gnomic will) and must consciously respond to divine grace. This understanding is similar to the Arminian protestant synergism. The Orthodox synergistic process of salvation includes baptism as a response to divine grace. Deification, or theosis is also an integral part of this process.

#### Anabaptist theology

Anabaptists hold to synergism, teaching that "both God and man play real and necessary parts in the reconciling relationship which binds them." Anabaptists have a high view of the moral capacities of humans when "enlivened by the active agency of the Holy Spirit".

#### Arminian theology

Christians who adhere to Arminian theology, such as Methodists, believe that salvation is synergistic. Jacobus Arminius first emphasized the role of prevenient grace, which involves a monergistic act of God, followed by "subsequent" act involving a synergistic work. Thus, for Arminians, prevenient grace involves a synergistic process. Similarly, John Wesley held that salvation begins with divine initiative. Additionally, Wesleyan-Arminian theology teaches that both justification and sanctification are synergistic. The Arminian perspective on salvation is often described as "God-initiated synergism". This perspective aligns closely with the main characteristic of the early Semi-Augustinian thought.

#### Semi-Pelagian view

Semi-Pelagianism is present in many current evangelical denominations. It holds that a person can initiate faith independently, without prevenient grace, while its continuation through regeneration depends on God’s grace. This has led to its characterization as "human-initiated synergism". After the Reformation, Reformed theologians used the term "Semi-Pelagianism" to describe both "Semi-Pelagianism" and "Semi-Augustininianism," the latter being a divine-initiated synergism.

### Denominations traditionally upholding monergism
#### Lutheran theology

Martin Luther (1483-1546) limited monergism strictly to soteriological aspects. He asserted that monergism applied to both election (to salvation) and reprobation. Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560), however, rejected monergism after Luther's death in favor of synergism. Melanchthon's stance influenced many Lutherans of his time throughout Europe to adopt synergism. The "synergistic controversy" arose when Gnesio-Lutherans, citing Luther's monergistic stance, opposed John Pfeffinger's synergistic views on the role of human will in conversion.
By 1580, Melanchthon's view had lost prominence, and the Book of Concord (1580) affirmed soteriological monergism in relation to election (to salvation), but explicitly rejected its application to reprobation. Accordingly, the contemporary Lutheran Church continues to uphold this view. While monergism remains the official stance, Lutheran history includes both monergist and synergist views.

#### Reformed theology

In orthodox Reformed theology, divine monergism is understood as operating through an exhaustive divine providence. For example, Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) viewed that everything, including human salvation and reprobation, was determined by God. In contrast, "libertarian Calvinism", a revision described by Oliver D. Crisp in his book Deviant Calvinism (2014), is a soteriological monergism. Historically, this perspective has remained a minority view within Calvinism.

#### Anglican theology

In Anglican Churches there is the historic, Reformed monergistic view of salvation. The Church Society teaches that Article 10 of the Thirty-nine Articles "underwrites a monergistic (from mono — ‘one,’ and ergo — ‘to work’) doctrine of justification. ... It teaches that our state of spiritual death — the utter inability of the bound human will — means that everything that goes into our coming to spiritual life has to belong to God. His is the whole initiative; his is the decisive, effective will."
However, since the Great Ejection, many Anglicans have adhered to the Semi-Augustinian, synergistic view taught by Richard Hooker, Harold Browne, George Tomline, and others.
For example, Browne says on Article 10;
   "But the will, thus set free, needs farther support, guidance, and strength. The new-born Christian has still a conflict to undergo, for which he requires the whole armour of God. This is expressed in the Article, by the words “working with us when we have that good will.”...The will, no longer enslaved and bowed down, is set at liberty and enabled to act; and though, whenever and howsoever it acts in a good direction, it is always acting under the guidance and governance of the Spirit of God, yet it does not follow that that guidance is a yoke of bondage, or of irresistible necessity....that blessed Spirit does not move the will as a mere machine, so that it is impossible for it to resist or neglect His blessed influences...If, indeed, according to the sentiment of Luther, quoted in the former section, man’s will was first a mere bond-slave of sin, and after grace equally a slave, or machine, moved passively and irresistibly by the Spirit, we can hardly understand how it should be that men are not all equally abandoned before grace, and all equally moving onward to perfection under grace. Since by that theory the will is entirely passive under the motions of the Spirit, opposing no obstacle to them, and therefore, as we should suppose, likely in all persons to be fully and perfectly sanctified...The doctrine of Scripture, however, is evidently expressed in the words of our Article. God must give the will, must set the will free from its natural slavery, before it can turn to good; but then it moves in the freedom which He has bestowed upon it, and never so truly uses that freedom, as when it follows the motions of the Spirit. Yet clearly there remains some power to resist and to do evil. For, though “those that have no will to good things God maketh them to will; . . . Yet, nevertheless, He enforceth not the will.” And so, although He must work in us, yet we, under His influences, must strive and press forward, not resisting Him, not neglecting, but stirring up His gifts in our hearts.
And Tomline on the same;
   "In either case our own exertions are necessary to enable us to work out our own salvation,...The joint agency of God and man, in the work of human salvation, is pointed out in the following passage: "Let us work out our own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure"...some sects contend for the irresistible impulses of grace... [this] opinion seems irreconcilable with the free agency of man...let the will of man be admitted to be its handmaid, but such an one as is free...when it is freely excited by the admonitions of preventing grace, when it is prepared as to its affections, strengthened and assisted as to its powers and faculties, a man freely and willingly co-operates with God"