The Myth of Pelagianism

After reading Classics at Oxford Ali Bonner worked in television, before studying Anglo Saxon, Norse, and Celtic in Cambridge, where she gained a BA (Aff.) and MPhil, followed by a PhD on the manuscript transmission of Pelagius' Letter to Demetrias. Subsequently she was a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford, before being appointed to the Lectureship in Celtic History at Cambridge. Her research focuses on Pelagius and Faustus of Riez, two British authors of the fifth century who wrote in Latin, and she has published on St Patrick and Pelagius. She currently teaches on Celtic history, that is, the history of the Brittonic speaking peoples and the Gaelic speaking peoples from AD 380 to 1170.

• Introduction1: The Caricature of Pelagius' Teaching, and its Disjunction from the Reality of Texts Written by Pelagius2: Pelagius did not Invent Anything: All of the Teachings in his Writings had Already Been Widely Disseminated in Ascetic Paraenesis - Part 13: Pelagius did not Invent Anything: All of the Teachings in his Writings had Already Been Widely Disseminated in Ascetic Paraenesis - Part 24: No Organised Movement Existed, and No One Held this Collection of Views5: Systemic Problems of Definition and Classification6: The Invention of 'Pelagianism': Motive and Means7: The Manuscript Evidence and its ImplicationsConclusionIndex

The Myth of Pelagianism is an impressive and provocative book that will become required reading for historians, theologians, and classicists studying the late fourth and fifth centuries. Ali Bonner is to be commended for her initiative and command of the sources. In short, highly recommended.