Calvinists such as Augustine Rejected Man's Tripartite Nature
The longing for God, even though seemingly unconscious, obscure or misinterpreted in unregenerated man to accept the cross clashed with the Calvinist's heretical teaching of Total depravity. Calvinists reasoned that since man is spiritually dead, he is totally passive and cannot accept the cross and aspire for God. Thus “man was to all intents and purposes ‘de-spirited’.” But does "spiritually dead" equal Total depravity? This reduced man to an inanimate object, like a stone or tree, and severely undermine man’s humanity. But was man not still made in God's image? Man was "a kind of unfeeling and inept material that had to be moved from one place to another." The doctrine of sola gratia, under the influence of Augustine's understanding of grace, undermined human freedom by stressing that grace is not merely indispensable but irresistible. "Fundamentally, the objection was that Augustine had resolved the [alleged] paradox of inevitability and responsibility at the expense of responsibility, and that he glorified [Calvinistic] grace by belittling nature and free will." Belittling nature and free will exposes the denigrating position Augustine took to denounce human responsibility which led to crimes against humanity.
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