The following are definitions of Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism from the "Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms" (1996). Despite the "Westminster" in its name, I'm confident that this work represents the mainstream Presbyterian church, which is not "Reformed" in most rigorous senses of the word, though it is broadly in that tradition, as distinct from Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic.
(p. 205)
(p. 255)
(1996)
For an even more simplified definition (sorry, they didn't have Semi-Pelagianism) compare:
From "Crazy Talk: A Not-so-stuffy Dictionary of Theological Terms" Jacobson et al. (2017)
At the other end, we have a multi-volume theological encyclopedia, namely the New Schaff Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Dr. Samuel Macauley Jackson, Ed. 13 vols. (1909-1912-1914). Vol. 10, pp. 347-49 (link to starting page)
The section author is, I believe, Friedreich Loofs, a church historian best known for his study of the history of dogma. Loofs is pictured below.
Loofs' article boils down Semi-Pelagianism to synergism: "A synergistic view raised in opposition to Augustine's monergism." (p. 347, left col.)
Loofs' article summarizes a key point of the debate succinctly: "The question was whether the 'grace of creation, remission, and doctrine' were sufficient to attain salvation or whether a 'grace of inspiration' was inwardly essential in addition and for every act...." (347R)
Loofs summarizes Cassian's objection this way: "Man must be saved by grace but conditioned on his consent and 'all who perish do so contrary to the will of God'." (347R)
Loofs indicates that when Possessor (a North African monk) objected to the citation of the authority of Faustus of Riez on the ground of Pelagianism, "Pope" Hormisdas in 520 "declared that Faustus, like all others not included among the Fathers, was incompetent to judge on dogmatic questions." Loofs continued: "The pope found error in the works of Faustus, but did not pronounce them heretical." (348R)
Loofs notes that the Second Council of Orange failed to address the issue of the irresistibility of grace. Loofs also suggests that baptism is treated as a "vehicle of grace," which Loofs considers to be a departure from an Augustine disconnection between baptism and the impartation of grace. Boniface II approved the canons of Orange and they became "the official disposition" of the controversy. (349L)
Loofs summarize the Massilians views this way (349L):
The Massilians held Pelagius to be a heretic and accepted the decision of the Synod of Carthage (418). They concurred in Augustine's doctrine of grace, including the thesis that man requires the inspiration of grace to do good. But they declined the Augustinian monergism; their synergistic view involved the decision on man's part, with reference to eternal life, whether by virtue of his freedom he assented, and therefore submitted to the operation of divine grace, or was indifferent to grace, therefore rejecting it. The Augustinian theses, that faith is purely an effect of grace; that grace is irresistible; that no human act (as meritum) is ever to be considered as a cause of the divine operation of grace; that salvation has its basis only in the divine election-- these were unacceptable.
Loofs continues (349L):
This view has been designated as Semipelagian on the presupposition of the difference between Augustine referring the salvation of those who are saved to the grace of God alone, and Pelagius referring the same to the possible well-doing of man without the "grace of inspiration." Accordingly, the synergism of the Massilians is correctly presumed to be "half" Pelagian, and the discovery by Augustine and Prosper of the reliquia of Pelagianism is from their point of view well founded.
Loofs, nevertheless, insists that it is "improper to make the doctrine of grace of Augustine ... the standard with which to compare a heresy." (349L) Loofs argues: "The departures from Augustinian doctrine not censured at Orange should not be designated Semipelagian." (349L)
Loof's' article identifies the "distinctive marks" of the "censured heresy" at the Second Council of Orange as:
1) Denial of Prevenient Grace
2) Refusal to Recognize that "Faith" was a "Gift of God"
3) Refusal to Regard the Natural Man as Totally Incapable of Doing Good, making the spontaneous cooperation of man as a condition to the operation of grace
4) Presuming Grace to be Imparted in Consequence of "Some Merit."
(349L)
Loofs takes the position that Roman Catholicism, while claiming Augustine as a doctor of the church, has departed from his doctrines. Loofs suggests that the view of the Hypomnesticon, which apparently advocated for the idea of the resistance of grace, such that election and reprobation is on the basis of foreseen absence of resistance to grace (election) or foreseen resistance to grace (predestination to death), pre-dates Semipelagianism and should be called "crypto-Semi-pelagianism," while the 13th century Franciscan teachings of distinguishing between a general grace and a saving grace and of congruent and condign merit are "the Semipelagian representations ... in new garbs." Thus, Loofs suggests the latter should be called "Neo-Semipelagianism," and that Roman Catholicism is rightly charged as such. (349R)
Augustine through the Ages, an Encyclopedia, Allan D. Fitzgerald ed. is one of the go-to resources on Augustine and Augustinianism. It is, therefore, a logical choice to go to for a discussion of Semi-Pelagianism. The subject is covered from the right column of p. 761 to the left column of p. 766. The section author is Conrad Leyser, an associate professor of Medieval History on the faculty of the University of Oxford.
Modern scholarship now regards this traditional view of "semi-Pelagianism" with grave misgivings: some scholars would refuse the term altogether, and few would use it without qualification. A principle ground of objection to the term is its anachronism. "Semi-Pelagianism" was first put into circulation in the late sixteenth century in debates between Dominicans and the Jesuit L. de Molina; it was the Dominican contention that Molina's doctrine of grace, which looked to safeguard free human cooperation with God's will, was a species of Pelagianism.
Leyser goes on to acknowledge that (762L):
For A. von Harnack, in his Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte (1890), "semi-Pelagian" was an apt description of the medieval Catholic tradition as a whole; only with Luther was the church restored to a proper adherence to Augustine's teachings." The polemical charge carried by "semi-Pelagianism" has made modern scholars suspicious of the term as a descriptive or analytic category.
The remainder of the entry provides an interesting historical discussion of the so-called Semi-Pelagian controversy.
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