Grace - charis; gratia; grace

Japanese: 恩恵 - おんけい（英語表記）charis; gratia; grace

Grace, grace, or favor. A fundamental concept in Christian theology, referring to the gift of God's grace that brings salvation to humans. Its interpretation differs among churches and schools of thought. According to medieval theology, humans were created for a finite purpose and were endowed with the necessary abilities (called nature), but by God's free will, humans were elevated to make the infinite God Himself the object of their knowledge and love, and were endowed with new qualities and abilities necessary to achieve this. These qualities and abilities are called grace, and the entire new dimension is called the supernatural or righteous state. When humanity as a whole rebelled against God (→ original sin), it lost this supernatural state, but it was restored by the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, grace also brings the forgiveness of sins, and is also called "the grace of Christ." If grace is foreign to human nature, like clothing, salvation through it is merely external and forced. On the other hand, if grace is inherent in nature, it becomes something that is taken for granted, and its absolute gratuitousness from God is lost. The Pelagians emphasized the latter line, according to which creation is itself a matter of grace, and salvation is ultimately the result of human effort, leading to legalism and Pharisaism (→Pharisees). The former line led to Manichaeism (→Manichaeism), in which human nature remains fundamentally corrupt, degraded, and destroyed, and salvation is merely an act of God's unilateral will, not a "human" one. This tension has existed throughout the history of the church since the New Testament, as symbolized by Paul, who emphasized righteousness by faith, and the Book of James, who preached the necessity of good works. Despite the axiom that grace does not destroy nature, but rather presupposes and completes it, the issue has not been completely resolved, and is still debated to this day as a question of grace and free will (→Grace Controversy). During the Reformation, the Catholic side was attracted to Pelagian tendencies, while the Protestant side leaned toward Manicheism, emphasizing righteousness by faith alone and adopting the doctrine of justification, which holds that grace does not intrinsically restore or elevate fallen and destroyed human nature, but simply allows God to consider humans righteous through it.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

恩寵，聖寵，恵みとも訳される。人間に救済をもたらす神の恵みのたまものをいうキリスト教神学の基礎概念。その解釈については各教会，各学派で異なる。中世神学によれば，人間は有限の目的のため創造され，これに必要な能力がそなえられた (これを自然という) が，さらに神の無償の好意によって，無限な神自身を知と愛の目的とするよう高められ，その達成に必要な性質や能力を新たに与えられた。この性質，能力を恩恵，新しい次元全体を超自然または義の状態という。人類は全体として神にそむき (→原罪 ) ，この超自然の状態を失ったが，イエス・キリストの受肉と死と復活によってこの状態を回復した。それゆえ，恩恵はさらに罪のゆるしをもたらし，「キリストの恩恵」とも呼ばれる。恩恵が衣服のように人間本性に異質であれば，それによる救済は単に外面的なもの，強いられたものにすぎなくなる。逆に本性に内在的であれば，当然のものとなり，神からの絶対的無償性がそこなわれる。後者の線を強調したのがペラギウス派で，それによれば創造がそのまま恩恵であり，救いは結局人間の自力によるものとなり，律法主義，パリサイ主義 (→パリサイ派 ) につながる。前者を推し進めればマニケイスム (→マニ教 ) で，人間本性は根源的に堕落，悪化，破壊されたままにとどまり，救いは「人間の」救いではなく神の一方的意志行為にすぎなくなる。この緊張関係は，すでに新約の時代から，信仰による義を強調したパウロ，善業の必要を説いたヤコブ書に象徴されるように，教会の全歴史を通じて存在し，恩恵は自然を破壊せず，むしろそれを前提とし，完成するとの公理にもかかわらず，問題は完全に解決されることなく，恩恵と自由意志の問題として今日まで論争されている (→恩恵論争 ) 。宗教改革においてはカトリック側はペラギウス的傾向にひかれ，プロテスタント側はマニケイスム的傾向に傾いて信仰のみによる義を強調し，恩恵は堕落し破壊された人性を内在的に回復高揚することなく，単にそれによって神が人間を義とみなすという義認説をとった。

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