About spirit and letter

On the Spirit and the Letter: A Letter from Augustine to Marcellinus

This book is a Coptic Church translation, which means that not everything in the translator's or editor's comments is in agreement with us, and sometimes we disagree with it. Please alert us if there is something like this or something that is not clear.

Coptic Church Monk Translation
Supervised by: Father Tadros Yacoub Malti

We would also like to inform you that there are two opinions about the blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church. One opinion says that he is not a saint because there are some doctrinal errors in his teachings. Another opinion considers him a saint. The errors that the blessed Augustine fell into are the inheritance of original sin and the doctrine of the procession from the Father and the Son. Although he was not the theorist of these, he is considered the spiritual father of all those who adopted these two teachings. For more, see: Augustine of Hippo.

To read the English text please click here

This letter is a response to the teaching of Pelagius, who denied the role of grace and attributed all salvation to works... Orthodox theologians consider that Augustine also went to extremes in his response to Pelagius (in all his responses, not just in this letter), but he did not depart from the Orthodox faith. Like Pelagius

Scroll to Top