The problem with that for the Church fathers, notably Augustine, was that the presumption of innate human goodness obviates Christ. It denies the existence of original sin, which was what, for Christians, the Redemption was meant to overcome. In other words, the orthodox view was that only the intervention of divine grace could foster salvation: "The Augustinian system gives God exclusive credit for beginning and completing the process of salvation" (Rusch, 1981, p. 16). This is consistent with Iraneus's declaration in the third c
...