He was not a systematic theologian but a Christian ethicist whose theology was grounded in the practical application of the Christian virtues. Succinctly, he believed that all human beings are endowed by God with the free will to respond to God's gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. Salvation is a process in which God and man enter into a partnership or covenant, with God providing the grace by which faith produces works. It is an ethical theology firmly grounded in the Holy Scriptures and epitomized by the Epistle of St. James. We believe that God creates all life and that human beings are born with the ability to choose between good and evil.
Sin is a deliberate and willful act of commission or ommission.
However, each human being is born into a fallen world where the effects of Adam's Fall predispose us to sin. We consider ourselves to be both. We share many liturgical and spiritual practices in common with the Church of Rome. We differ in that we do not recognize the primacy of the Bishop of Rome and we do not ascribe to any infallibility on the part of any one Bishop, including the Pope. We do not have a mandatory celibacy for those in Holy Orders.