Abstract:

The Augustinian doctrine of gratuitous union in Christ (and his union with the rest of mankind) emphasized in the struggle against the Pelagian theory concerning the merit of the just prior to Christ or the beginning of grace, finds its undoubted Christological influence in the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. The conception of the grace of union, the linking of capital grace with habitual grace, and the nexus of both with the first, have a very strong Augustinian imprint in general and the anti-Pelagian writings in particular.

Key words:

Augustin of Hippo, habitual grace, capital grace, pelagianism, Thomas Aquinas.