We dive once more into the differences between Eastern and Western Christianity. This time, Dr. Jacobs tackles the nature-grace divide. He’ll trace how Augustine's anti-Pelagian framework created a nature-grace divide in the Latin West, where human nature is seen as inherently incapable of pleasing God without supernatural assistance. In contrast, the Eastern tradition maintains that humans as icons of God possess a natural connection to divine grace through the image-archetype relationship. The analysis covers how these differing anthropologies lead to distinct understandings of total depravity, synergy, and the relationship between creature and Creator.

All the links: Substack: https://nathanajacobs.substack.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenathanjacobspodcastWebsite: https://www.nathanajacobs.com/X: https://x.com/NathanJacobsPodSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0hSskUtCwDT40uFbqTk3QSApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nathan-jacobs-podcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/nathanandrewjacobsAcademia: https://vanderbilt.academia.edu/NathanAJacobs

00:00:00 Intro

00:01:22 Recap & roadmap 

00:10:08 The Pelagian controversy

00:15:55 Hierarchy of loves

00:20:22 Augustine's pursuit of truth

00:28:19 Adam & Eve (original sin)

00:35:45 The root of total depravity

00:40:02 Divine volunteerism

00:51:09 Monistic views emerge

00:54:40 Medieval "faculty psychology"

01:08:22 Imago Dei (Image of God) nuances

01:11:30 Divine essence and energies

01:23:36 Insights from Plato

01:29:50 Man as icon of God

01:39:14 Grace in the Christian West

01:54:48 The faculty psychology problem

02:12:40 Doctrine of the Logoi

02:25:40 Idiosyncratic teleology

02:30:52 Wrapping up the series