John Owen on Natural and Moral Ability

I'm now half way through John Owen's masterful (and massive!) treatise on the Holy Spirit and have been amazed by some of his insights which were later articulated and popularized by Jonathan Edwards in his treatise on the Freedom of the Will.   The following passages taken from Book 3, Chapter 4 seems to me to be of immense importance for every Calvinist to understand if we are to preserve intact the two poles of God's Sovereignty and Man's Responsibility and avoid tripping and falling into the pit of hyper-Calvinism like some of our eighteenth-century Baptist forefathers:

"That Adam in the state of innocency, besides his natural life, whereby he was a living soul, had likewise a supernatural life with respect unto its end, whereby he lived unto God. This is called the “life of God,” Ephesians 4:18, which men now in the state of nature are alienated from; — the life which God requires, and which hath God for its object and end. And this life was in him supernatural: for although it was concreated in and with the rational soul, as a perfection due unto it, in the state wherein and with respect unto the end for which it was made, yet it did not naturally flow from the principles of the rational soul; nor were the principles, faculties, or abilities of it, inseparable from those of the soul itself, being only accidental perfections of them, inlaid in them by especial grace."

"In life spiritual the soul is unto the principle of it as the body is unto the soul in life natural; for in life natural the soul is the quickening principle, and the body is the principle quickened. When the soul departs, it leaves the body with all its own natural properties, but utterly deprived of them which it had by virtue of its union with the soul. So in life spiritual, the soul is not, in and by its essential properties, the quickening principle of it, but it is the principle that is quickened. And when the quickening principle of spiritual life departs, it leaves the soul with all its natural properties entire as to their essence, though morally corrupted; but of all the power and abilities which it had by virtue of its union with a quickening principle of spiritual life, it is deprived. And to deny such a quickening principle of spiritual life, superadded unto us by the grace of Christ, distinct and separate from the natural faculties of the soul, is, upon the matter, to renounce the whole gospel. 

Here are a few reflections on the implications of Owen's theology:

1) The Donum Superadditum for Reformed Protestants

Notice that Owen makes a distinction in this passage between the "rational soul" and the "quickening principle" which was originally "concreated" with the soul of Adam and Eve.  Although Owen affirms in good Protestant form that Adam was created in positive state of righteous (rather than a neutral state following Roman Catholics), the doctrine of the donum superadditum is certainly lurking in the background in these passages.  At the Fall Adam lost this supernatural gift and in conversion it is once again "superadded" to us.

2) Natural Ability vs. Moral Ability

Both Owen and Edwards make this distinction which is very important in understanding the doctrine of Total Depravity.  What exactly does it mean for the Apostle Paul to say that humankind is "dead in trespasses and sins"??  Does this imply (as in some crude Arminian caricatures of Calvinism) that humans have totally lost both their rational and moral abilities?  Can unregenerate humanity, dead in sin, reason successfully east of Eden now that the donum superadditum has been lost???   Owen's answer to this question is very insightful- the natural ability of the rational soul is left intact even though the "quickening" principle has been lost.   This does not mean that human reason has been untouched by Original Sin - such would be the heresy of Pelagius!!  Owen affirms in these passages that the rational soul has been "morally corrupted" but it has not by any means been totally destroyed.  Our rational faculties are still basically intact in terms of their natural abilities.   What Owen is doing here (and what Edwards also does) is to make a distinction between Natural and Moral ability in formulating a doctrine of Total Depravity.   Fallen men and women, according to both of these theologians, are naturally able to obey the commands of God because the rational soul is still functioning.  Fallen humanity, however is morally unable to obey the commands of God because the "quickening" principle has been lost!   Until that quickening principle is restored through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, humans will never use their natural, rational abilities to do what is pleasing to God.   This distinction is brilliant because it preserves both the responsibility of humankind before God (we are naturally able and thus must answer to God for our rebellion!!) and the sovereignty of God in salvation (God must restore moral ability through regeneration according to His sovereign, electing, grace). 

3)  Christian Apologetics

The distinction between Natural and Moral ability seems to me to help focus the debate between Presuppositionalists like Van Til and Evidentialists like William Lane Craig.   In reading Van Til firsthand over the past month, it seems to me that he does not clearly make this distinction and as a result embraces a rather unrealistic doctrine of Depravity that implies that non-believers are unable to reason coherently apart from Biblical presuppositions.  In other words, Van Til seems to teach that fallen humanity is both naturally and morally unable.  This seems to me to be a view of Total Depravity that is neither demanded by the Scripture nor evidenced in the real world, since many non-theists and deists have made significant contributions to the furthering of human knowledge without giving any credence whatsoever to the Bible or Christian theism.   The distinction between Natural and Moral ability also helps me come to terms with the dialectic in Calvin's theology between his very robust doctrine of Depravity and his deep admiration of the contributions of the ancient Greek Philosophers who were clearly unregenerate.  (Zwingli went so far in his bias toward renaissance humanism as to suggest that they were regenerated apart from the gospel!!).

St. Augustine's Confessions - Birthpangs of Conversion (Book VIII)

Aside from the theft of pears at the beginning of the Confessions, Book VIII is the most familiar to many people because it contains the famous narrative of Augustine's conversion in the Milan Garden.  As we have seen, Augustine's spiritual journey is best understood in terms of a number of small conversions which lead up to this chapter which is the climax of the Confessions as a whole.  In Book VII, he experienced a dramatic conversion of the mind through the books of the Platonists, and now in Book VIII he experiences a conversion of the heart and will through the epistles of Paul.

Augustine makes it clear throughout this book that his hesitancy to embrace Christ is no longer a problem related to his intellect but to the unregenerate will:  "All doubt had been taken from me that there is indestructible substance from which comes all substance.  My desire was not to be more certain of you but to be more stable in you."  (VIII.i.1)   He was in the same condition as the Rich Young Ruler in the gospels, "attracted to the way, the Saviour himself, but still reluctant to go along its narrow paths." (VIII.i.1)  Augustine describes his own inner turmoil as his mind fights against his will in terms reminiscent of Paul's struggle between flesh and Spirit in Romans 7:  "The new will, which was beginning to be within me a will to serve you freely and to enjoy you, God, the only source of pleasure, was not yet strong enough to conquer my older will which had the strength of old habit.  So my two wills, one old, the other new, one carnal, the other spiritual, were in conflict with one another, and their discord robbed my soul of all concentration." (VIII.V.10)

Augustine's intense inner conflict leads him into a philosophical excursus on the nature of the will since he understood the problem of conversion to be first and foremost, a problem of the human will:  "The one necessary condition, which meant not only going but at once arriving there, was to have the will to go - provided only that the will was strong and unqualified, not the turning and twisting first this way, then that, of a will half-wounded, struggling  with one part rising up and the other part falling down." (VIII.vii.19)  It is a "monstrous situation", he contends, that the human will can control the motions of the body, but is unable to command the mind: "What causes this monstrous fact?  and why is it so?  The mind commands the body and is instantly obeyed.  The mind commands itself and meets resistance.  The mind commands the hand to move, and it is so easy that one hardly distinguishes the order from its execution.  Yet mind is mind, and hand is body.  The mind orders he mind to will.  The recipient of the order is itself, yet it does not perform it." (VII.ix.21)  Augustine concludes that his own will was divided into two: "In my own case,, as I deliberated about serving my Lord God which I had long been disposed to do, the self which willed to serve was identical with the self which was unwilling.  It was I.  I was neither wholly willing nor wholly  unwilling.  So I was in conflict with myself and was dissociated from myself." (VIII.x.22)

The internal division of mind and will that Augustine had been experiencing since Platonist philosophers had enabled him to conceive of God in terms of spiritual substance, rather than as physical matter diffused throughout the universe came to a climax in a Garden in Milan with his friend Alypius by his side:  "This debate in my heart was a struggle of myself against myself.  Alypius stood quest still at my side, and waited in silence for the outcome of my unprecedented state of agitation."  (VIII.xi.27)  In a garden scene highly reminiscent of the Garden of Eden (probably intentionally so), Augustine threw himself down under a "certain figtree" and wept uncontrollably.  In this intense state of emotion the final and climactic conversion occurred:  "As I was saying this and weeping in the bitter agony of my heart, suddenly I heard a voice from the nearby house changing as if it might be a boy or a girl (i do not know which), saying and repeating over and over again 'Pick up and read, pick up and read.'...I interpreted it solely as a divine command to me to open the book and read the first chapter I might find...So I hurried back to the place where Alypius was sitting.  There I had put down the book of the apostle [Paul] when I got up.  I seized it, opened it and in silence read the first passage on which my eyes lit:  'Not in riots and drunken parties, not in eroticism and indecencies, not in strife and rivalry, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in its lusts' (Rom 13:13-14).  I neither wished nor needed to read further.  At once, with the last words of this sentence, it was as if a light of relief from all anxiety flooded into my heart.  All the shadows of doubt were dispelled."  (VIII.xi.29)

There are several significant theological points that could be made from this book and probably shaped the way that Augustine chose to tell his conversion narrative:

1) Original sin has corrupted the human will and rendered it completely unable to choose Christ apart from God's grace.  Before God extends His grace to the lost sinner, he is like a corpse - completely unable to do anything about his lost situation (cf. Eph 2:1-10).  Conversion is a miracle of resurrection no less than the resurrection of Christ.

2) Intellectual arguments and proofs cannot save you.  Conversion is much more than simply becoming convinced of certain facts or truths concerning the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Faith has an intellectual component, but a purely intellectual faith is not the kind of faith that saves.  Faith involves the heart, mind and the will - it is not purely intellectual, nor is it purely experiential.

3) Faith is a gift of God's grace that must be received.  Although we often like to think of faith as a human capacity and a mere function of the will, the situation is more complex than that.  In our fallen condition, we cannnot simply choose to follow Christ until we are made regenerate by the Holy Spirit.  Regeneration always precedes faith although the two are intimately connected.  To place faith before regeneration, is to commit the error of Pelagius (one of Augustine's primary theological opponents in his latter years) and to deny the devastating consequences of original sin on the human will.

4)  "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." (Rom 10:17)   It is interesting how Augustine brings this truth to the forefront in his own conversion narrative.  God often chooses to grant the gift of faith through careful meditation on His Word.  In His sovereign plan He ordains both the ends and the means through which those ends are accomplished.  Scripture and the preaching of the Word are the means which God has ordained to bring His elect to repentance and faith.

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