Augustine, the Father of Predestination

Although other Church Fathers had previously written about predestination, Augustine (354-430 C.E.) is generally considered to have laid the foundations of the doctrine for both Catholic and Protestant churches. According to Augustine, the righteous have from eternity been predestined by God to receive eternal blessings. On the other hand, the unrighteous, although not predestined by God in the strict sense of the word, are to receive the merited punishment for their sins, condemnation.

The issue of predestination and the closely related question of “grace”​—a word used by the churches to designate the act by which God saves and declares men righteous—​took on such proportions that in 1611 the Catholic Holy See forbade anything to be published on the subject without its consent. Within the Catholic Church, Augustine’s teachings received strong support from the French Jansenists of the 17th and 18th centuries. They advocated a very austere and elite form of Christianity and even had followers among the aristocracy.