What is Augustine's view on the relationship between free will and predestination?
According to the Catholic Church's teachings on Augustine's views, there is a nuanced relationship between free will and predestination:
Augustine rejects the extreme views of both the Predestinationists and the Semipelagians. The Predestinationists believed in the absolute predestination of the elect to heaven and the reprobate to hell, leaving no room for free will. The Semipelagians, on the other hand, believed that human free will alone determined salvation, with no role for divine predestination.
Augustine's position, which became the Catholic dogma, affirms both the reality of God's gratuitous and eternal election of the saved (predestination), as well as the preservation of human free will. As the passages explain, Augustine saw God as having infallible foreknowledge of how each person would freely respond to His graces.
Augustine taught that God, in His eternal decree, chose certain souls for salvation, not based on any merit on their part, but out of His own free and gracious will. However, this does not mean the non-elect are predestined to damnation - they still have the free will to accept or reject God's offer of salvation.
The infallibility of God's foreknowledge and predestination does not negate human free will, according to Augustine. God knows infallibly how each person will freely respond to His graces, but does not force their will. The elect are saved because they freely choose to cooperate with God's grace, while the non-elect are damned because they freely reject it.
Augustine saw final perseverance in grace as a special gift from God, not something earned by human effort alone. But he did not believe God positively predestines anyone to sin or damnation - the non-elect are lost because of their own free choice, not because of an irresistible divine decree.
In summary, Augustine upheld both the reality of divine predestination and the preservation of human free will in his theology, avoiding the extremes of determinism and pure Pelagianism. This nuanced view became the foundation for the Catholic Church's teaching on this topic.