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How did St. Jerome respond to Pelagianism in Dialogi contra Pelagianos?
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St. Jerome
Saint Jerome, oil on canvas by José de Ribera (Jusepe de Ribera, Lo Spagnoletto), c. 1638–40; in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
In his work Dialogi contra Pelagianos (415), St. Jerome responded to the Pelagian heresy—which minimized the role of divine grace in salvation—by employing a series of fictitious interlocutors to debate the theological issues at hand.12
This approach allowed Jerome to present his arguments in an uncommonly impersonal manner, marking the text as his finest controversial work. By utilizing this dialogue format, he systematically countered the views of Pelagius, who had transplanted his teachings to Palestine from Rome. Through these three books, Jerome defended the necessity of divine grace against the Pelagian emphasis on human effort and moral autonomy.21