Letter 11

From: Faustus, Bishop of Riez To: [unnamed correspondent] Date: ~485 AD Context: The last preserved letter of Faustus — written in old age, reflecting on the theological controversies of his life and what he hopes will endure. Faustus to his beloved son in the Lord. I am old now, and I write fewer letters than I used to — not because there is less to say, but because the hand tires more quickly and the mind, I notice, returns more often than it used to to the same few central questions. What do I think will endure of what I have tried to argue? The insistence on genuine human freedom — I believe this is right, and I believe it will be defended again and again in the church's history, because it is essential to the Gospel's moral seriousness. A faith that treats human beings as puppets whose strings are pulled by a divine will cannot meaningfully call anyone to repentance, cannot honestly promise forgiveness, cannot invite a genuine response. The invitation must be real. Whether my specific theological formulations will endure — I am much less certain. I have always been more confident about what I was arguing against than about every detail of what I was arguing for. The opponents of genuine human freedom in grace had, I believe, gone wrong. Whether I found exactly the right way to say what they had gotten wrong — this I am happy to leave to the judgment of those who come after me. What I hope is simply this: that the church keeps thinking. That the questions do not get closed prematurely. That each generation is asked to genuinely understand what it confesses, not just to repeat it. In Christ's peace, Faustus, bishop of Riez