Calvinism and Catholicism

 I had a question/comment posed to me: 

I wanted to discuss a couple points of theology. What really made me want to convert was a fundamental disagreement with Protestantism on two things: Grace and "total depravity.

Concerning the former, I don't view grace as a one and done deal. I believe we have to cooperate with it via our free will. We have to put our money where our mouths are and show up. When I found the Church actually teaches this it was a massive breath of fresh air, as I had lived in the tension of seriously disagreeing with Protestantism on this point.

Concerning the latter, I think people are generally good, as we were made in the image of God, but have a tendency to sin. The Church, of course, conceptualizes this as Original Sin. The idea that we're totally depraved is refuted by the fact that we're not totally depraved. That one is kinda easy. And again, living in that tension. Some protestant denominations believe it more than others, but that notion permeates most of them to some degree. I had initially rejected the Church's teaching on Original Sin because I mistakenly thought it was in line with Calvinist "total depravity." Knowing the difference, I can fully assent to this teaching.

These aren't just one-off disagreements with Protestantism. These are major. I find Catholicism to be mostly on point with other theological views as well. We'll see where this journey takes me...

My response (as someone still haunted occasionally by the ghost of John Calvin at night): 

To be fair, not all Protestant denominations are grounded in the concept of total depravity. If you have ever had to suffer through a debate between a Calvinist and an Arminian, you know what I mean. In fact, I would argue most liberal Protestant churches anymore actively reject that. In fact, I think many tend to jump to the other side of the equation entirely to a point of Pelagianism where we are so good we can actually earn our own salvation because sometimes they don't even really believe in sin at all.

Part of this goes back to St. Augustine's notions of the Massa Damnata, that the idea that we are basically all on this big boat to hell and the work of salvation is basically the angels picking the elect from the boat like farmers try to pick as many berries from the vine before they all go bad or get eaten by birds. This stems from his arguments with the Pelagians but also his notions on infant baptism. Largely his argument being, "What part of 'for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God' do you not understand?"

This actually is within the broader scope of Catholic theology, though many modern Catholic theologians reject that entirely in favor of Aquinas' later theology. There is a place for election and such as that within the Catholic framework but it has to be balanced with the idea that we are made in the likeness and image of God, and no sin can ever mar that likeness and Imago Dei so badly that we cease to be in God's likeness to some degree. We can be horribly marred and it might very well be hard for anyone to see God's likeness in us, but it's never so far removed that we become totally depraved in the Calvinist sense.

Calvin twisted what Augustine was talking about because Augustine's understanding of depravity emphasized that human nature is fundamentally good but has been corrupted by original sin, leading to a predisposition to evil. Augustine believed that all people are inescapably inclined to sin and require divine grace for redemption but that they never degrade so far as to cease being human because Augustine was still grounding in the redemptive nature of Sacraments.

Calvin was speaking more toward our natures and largely rejected the idea of Sacramental power. Calvin was more into the idea that humans was so corrupted by sin that we lose that Imago Dei and only God in his monogerism can bring about salvation. To Calvin, we become like steel that is so melted by the fire of sin that we degrade to the point of no longer being steel, but break down into the constituent elements of of iron and carbon to which only God can meld us back into steel. We can't do it of our own volition but only through the power of Divine Sovereignty. That allowed him to jump into things like Predestination (Calvin never actually spoke definitively on double Predestination.) Calvin conveniently never reveals that Augustine was always still grounded in the idea of the Church and the Sacraments being vehicles of grace and salvation for those who were the Elect. It was quite the intellectual slight of hand for Calvin.