The doctrine of Sola Fide (“faith alone”) holds that man is justified before God by faith alone, without any meritorious cooperation of works. It is the material principle of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation (sola scriptura being its formal principle). Formulated by Martin Luther from his reading of the Epistles to the Romans and to the Galatians, it was condemned as such by the Council of Trent in January 1547.
The central Catholic argument is threefold: (1) the formulation is unscriptural — Saint Paul never says “by faith alone”, and it is Luther who adds the word “allein” to Romans 3:28 in 1522; (2) the Bible explicitly teaches the opposite — Saint James 2:24 uses precisely the words “not by faith alone” (ouk ek pisteōs monon) to deny the formula; (3) Jesus Himself makes the Last Judgment rest on works (Mt 25:31-46; Mt 7:21).
This article sets out the Lutheran formulation, presents six classic Protestant objections with their sourced Catholic answers, details Trent’s magisterial response and the ecumenical dialogue of the 1999 JDDJ (a differentiated consensus signed between Rome and the Lutheran World Federation).
The Lutheran Formulation
Romans 3:28 and the addition of “allein” (1522)
While translating the Epistle to the Romans into German in 1522, Luther added the word “allein” (“alone”) to Romans 3:28, which became: “So we hold that man is justified by faith alone (allein), without the works of the Law.” That word is not in the Greek original (chōris ergōn nomou — without the works of the Law, but without any “alone”).
In his Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen (1530), Luther defended his addition:
*“The text itself and Saint Paul’s meaning demand and require it with force.
For Paul is dealing here with the great principal article of Christian doctrine.”*
— Martin Luther, Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen, 1530[1]
The argument is theological, not philological: for Luther, Paul opposes faith to works so radically that the “alone” is implicitly present in the text. Critics (both Catholic and modern Protestant) observe that this interpolation forces the text to say what it does not literally say.
Simul iustus et peccator
A key formula of Lutheran theology is simul iustus et peccator — “at once righteous and sinner.” Luther formulates it in his Lectures on the Epistle to the Romans (1515-1516):
“Ideo simul sum peccator et iustus, quia facio malum et odio malum quod facio.” (“I am therefore at once sinner and righteous, because I do evil and I hate the evil that I do.”) — Martin Luther, Vorlesung über den Römerbrief, 1515-1516, WA 56, 70[2]
For Luther, the justified person remains fundamentally a sinner in his nature; justification is an extrinsic imputation of Christ’s righteousness which covers sin without removing it.
The Schmalkaldic Articles (1537)
Article II, 1 of the Schmalkaldische Artikel (1536-1537) solemnly states:
“That Jesus Christ, our God and our Lord, died for our sins and rose again for our justification (Rom 4:25), and that He alone is the Lamb of God who bears the sins of the world (Jn 1:29). [...] Now, it is by this faith alone (allein solcher Glaube) that we obtain this justification.”[3]
Six Protestant objections and their Catholic answers
Here are the six great objections of classical Protestantism on the doctrine of justification, with their sourced Catholic answers.
Objection 1 — “Romans 3:28 and Galatians 2:16 teach that man is justified by faith without works: sola fide is therefore Pauline”
Answer: Saint Paul writes “by faith, without the works of the Law” (ergōn nomou) — he is aiming specifically at the ritual works of the Mosaic Law (circumcision, dietary prescriptions, Sabbath observance), not at the works of charity that flow from grace. The word “alone” is the Lutheran addition (1522), absent from the Greek and absent from the entire earlier exegetical tradition.
The American Jesuit Joseph A. Fitzmyer S.J. (1920-2016), former member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, in his great commentary on Romans (Anchor Bible 33, Doubleday 1993), demonstrates through philological analysis that Paul’s juxtaposition of pistis and erga nomou opposes trust in Christ to Judaizing ritual observance — not faith to acts of charity animated by grace[4].
The Anglican theologian N. T. (Tom) Wright (St Andrews, Oxford), a major figure of the New Perspective on Paul, redefines in Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision (IVP Academic, 2009 — an answer to John Piper) the Greek verb dikaioō (“to justify”) not as an extrinsic juridical transaction but as “God’s declaration that someone belongs to the covenant family”[5] (a reading later developed in his magnum opus Paul and the Faithfulness of God, Fortress Press, 2013[6]):
“Justification is God’s declaration of both — that all who share this faith belong to Christ, to his sin-forgiven family, the single family of believing Jews and believing Gentiles together, and are assured of final glorification.” — N. T. Wright, Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision, IVP Academic, 2009, p. 132[7] (article’s translation)
This reading, coming from a Reformed Anglican theologian, converges structurally with Trent’s Catholic position: justification = entry into and perseverance within the covenant community, where faith and works do not oppose but complete each other.
Objection 2 — “Saint James (Jas 2:24) contradicts Paul; Luther is right to call it an ‘epistle of straw’”
Answer: James 2:24 states explicitly, in the Greek original:
“You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.” — James 2:24 (ouk ek pisteōs monon)
It is Scripture’s explicit negation of the “faith alone” formula. Aware of the difficulty, Luther called James an “epistle of straw” (strohern Epistel) in his Preface to the New Testament (Vorrede zum Neuen Testament, 1522):
“Saint James’s epistle is a true epistle of straw (eyn rechte stroern Epistel) in comparison [with the others], for it has nothing of the Gospel in it.” — Martin Luther, Vorrede zum Neuen Testament, 1522, WA, Deutsche Bibel, vol. 6, p. 10[8]
Luther relegated four writings to the end of his New Testament translation (Septembertestament, 1522), in an unnumbered section, in this order: Hebrews, James, Jude, Revelation — he did not exclude them from the canon but marginalized them[9]. This marginalization effectively subordinates the biblical text to a pre-established theological scheme. The criterion of inspiration applied — was Christum treibet (“what urges Christ”) — is itself extra-scriptural and operates a canon within the canon, a direct challenge to the principle of sola scriptura.
More profoundly: James 2 and Romans 3 do not contradict each other. Paul aims at the ritual works of the Mosaic Law that precede grace; James aims at the works of charity that flow from grace received. James’s argument (Jas 2:14-26) even uses Paul’s own example of Abraham (Gen 15:6) but joins to it the work of the sacrifice of Isaac (Gen 22): it is faith at work that is “brought to perfection by works” (Jas 2:22). It is the same doctrine as Paul’s own in Galatians 5:6: “What counts is faith working through love.”
Objection 3 — “Salvation by grace, without works: Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly teaches sola fide”
Answer: Here is the complete text:
“For it is by grace that you are saved, through faith. This salvation comes not from you, it is God’s gift; it comes not from works, so that no one may boast. For we are indeed his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God prepared in advance for us to practise.” — Ephesians 2:8-10 (Jerusalem Bible)
The Protestant quotation typically stops at verse 9. But verse 10 — in the same sentence — affirms that we are created “for good works” (epi ergois agathois). Grace does not exclude works: it makes them possible and requires them.
The Apostle Paul, in the same epistle, explicitly writes that the final judgment will be according to works:
“[God] will repay each one according to his works: to those who by perseverance in good seek glory, honour and incorruptibility, eternal life; to the others, who rebel against the truth and obey injustice, wrath and indignation.” — Romans 2:6-8
And three verses further on:
“For it is not the hearers of the Law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the Law who will be justified.” — Romans 2:13
The Greek verb used in Rom 2:13 is δικαιωθήσονται (dikaiōthēsontai, “will be justified,” future passive indicative) — the same verb (δικαιόω, “to justify”) that Paul uses in Rom 3:28, where it stands in the present infinitive δικαιοῦσθαι (dikaioûsthai, “to be justified”: “λογιζόμεθα γὰρ δικαιοῦσθαι πίστει”). The Pauline context holds together both an initial justification by faith apart from the works of the Mosaic Law, and a final judgment according to works accomplished in the Spirit.
The Apostle himself acknowledges his salvation as a goal to be reached, not as a certainty acquired once for all:
“I press on to try to grasp, having been grasped myself by Christ Jesus. [...] Forgetting what lies behind, I go straight ahead, straining with my whole being, and I run towards the goal.” — Philippians 3:12-14
And more directly:
“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” — Philippians 2:12
Objection 4 — “Jesus Himself teaches that faith suffices; works smack of Pelagianism”
Answer: It is precisely the reverse. Christ explicitly makes the Last Judgment rest on acts of charity performed:
“When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him [...] he will separate men from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. [...] Come, you blessed of my Father, receive as an inheritance the Kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me. [...] Truly I tell you, insofar as you did it to one of the least of my brethren, you did it to me.” — Matthew 25:31-40
The sorting is not between those who believed and those who did not believe — it is between those who did and those who did not do. It is the most explicit teaching Christ left on the Last Judgment.
And still more directly:
“It is not by saying to me: Lord, Lord, that one will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is by doing the will of my Father.” — Matthew 7:21
“The Son of man will repay each one according to his conduct.” — Matthew 16:27
“He who endures to the end will be saved.” — Matthew 24:13
Saint Peter:
“Redouble your efforts to confirm your calling, so as not to fall.” — 2 Peter 1:10-11
Saint Paul (who yet defends justification by faith in Romans and Galatians):
“Though I had all faith, a faith to move mountains, if I have not charity, I am nothing.” — 1 Corinthians 13:2
And Saint John:
“Let us love neither in word nor with the tongue, but in deeds truly.” — 1 John 3:18
The case of the good thief (Lk 23:43)
There remains the most invoked example against this doctrine: the good thief crucified beside Christ, to whom Jesus promises Paradise “today” without any work being mentioned. Yet the objection turns back on itself, for Luke’s text shows the thief acting in the very instant of his conversion: he publicly rebukes the other criminal (“Have you then no fear of God!”), confesses his own guilt (“for us, it is justice”), proclaims Christ’s innocence (“he did nothing wrong”) and humbles himself in supplication (“remember me”).
“Truly, I tell you: today, with me, you will be in Paradise.” — Luke 23:43 (cf. Lk 23:40-42 for the thief’s words)
In a few seconds are united acts of faith, hope, justice, confession and charity: it is living faith, not faith alone. The Council of Trent answers precisely this type of case by defining that justification confers not faith alone, but the three infused theological virtues together:
“Man, through Jesus Christ in whom he is grafted, receives in this justification, together with the remission of sins, all these gifts infused at once: faith, hope and charity. For faith, unless hope and charity are added to it, neither unites perfectly with Christ nor makes man a living member of His body.” — Council of Trent, Session VI, ch. 7 (Denzinger §§ 1530-1531)[10]
The thief is therefore justified by faith informed by charity (fides caritate formata) in the very act of his death, by a sovereign act of Christ still on the Cross — he is, in tradition, the first fruit of the Redemption, not the counter-example to the doctrine of merit.
The Pelagian objection — wanting to merit salvation by one’s own human strength without grace — was condemned by the Church as early as the Council of Carthage (418) under Saint Augustine’s influence, then by the Second Council of Orange (529) which defined the absolute necessity of prevenient grace for the very beginning of faith[11]. The Catholic doctrine of merit always presupposes prior grace: we merit only because God first gives us the grace that makes the work meritorious.
Objection 5 — “Trent imposes the doctrine of human merit: it is justification by works, bordering on Pelagianism”
Answer: The Catholic doctrine of merit is neither Pelagian nor invented at Trent — it takes up Saint Augustine, thirteen centuries earlier, who taught it against the Pelagians after the Council of Carthage (418), then against the monks of Hadrumetum (De gratia et libero arbitrio, 426-427[12]). His decisive formula stands in Letter 194 to Sixtus (c. 418):
“Si ergo Dei dona sunt merita tua, non Deus coronat merita tua tamquam merita tua, sed tamquam dona sua.” (“If therefore your merits are gifts of God, God does not crown your merits as being your merits, but as being His gifts.” — article’s translation) — Saint Augustine, Epistola 194 ad Sixtum, 5, 19[13]
It is exactly Trent’s doctrine, canon 32 (1547):
“If anyone says that the good works of the justified man are gifts of God in such a way that they are not also the merits of the justified man himself [...] let him be anathema.” — Council of Trent, Session VI, canon 32 (Denzinger § 1582)[14]
Catholic merit is never a Pelagian self-salvation: it is the full recognition that the meritorious work is itself a gift of God, accomplished under the motion of grace, and has meritorious value only because Christ is united to the soul through sanctifying grace. Canon 32 condemns both Pelagianism (which claims to merit without grace) and Lutheranism (which denies all merit). It is the Catholic mean.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church synthesizes:
“The merits of our good works are gifts of the divine goodness (cf. Council of Trent: DS 1548). ‘Grace went before; now what is due is rendered... Merits are gifts of God’ (St. Augustine, serm. 298, 4-5: PL 38, 1367).” — CCC § 2009
Objection 6 — “The 1999 JDDJ proves that Rome finally yielded on sola fide”
Answer: Actually reading the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (signed at Augsburg on 31 October 1999 — the anniversary day of the 95 Theses) suffices to establish the reverse. The text establishes a differentiated consensus: the mutual anathemas of the 16th century no longer apply to the doctrine as presented in the JDDJ, but the text does not remove the real differences between the two traditions[15].
The heart of the text (§ 15) states:
“By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works.” — JDDJ, § 15[16]
Note: “by grace alone” (sola gratia) — not “by faith alone” (sola fide). It is a major theological distinction. Grace and received faith call to good works — the opposite of strict sola fide.
The joint Official Common Statement (§ 1) attached to the text specifies:
“The teaching of the Lutheran churches presented in this Declaration does not fall under the condemnations of the Council of Trent, and the condemnations of the Lutheran Confessions do not apply to the teaching of the Catholic Church presented in this Declaration.”[17]
The real divergences that the JDDJ explicitly acknowledges — and does not remove — can be summarized point by point. The table below contrasts the Lutheran conception with Trent’s Catholic doctrine on the six decisive axes of justification:
| Point of doctrine | Lutheran position | Catholic position (Trent) |
|---|---|---|
| Nature of the righteousness received | Imputed righteousness — extrinsic, remaining foreign to man | Infused righteousness — really communicated, inherent to the soul |
| State of the justified | Simul iustus et peccator: righteous and sinner at once | Really renewed inwardly, truly righteous |
| Merit of good works | Denied: no work has meritorious value | Affirmed: work done under grace truly merits (canon 32) |
| Assurance of salvation | Subjective assurance of salvation through faith | Firm hope, without presumption or absolute assurance |
| Loss of justification | Maintained as long as faith remains | Lost by any mortal sin, recovered through penance |
| Completion of sanctification | Punctual, declarative justification | Progressive sanctification, completed if needed in purgatory |
The 1999 consensus bears on a fundamental point — salvation comes from grace and faith, not from autonomous merit; it leaves intact, on the other hand, the structural divergence between a righteousness that covers man from the outside and a righteousness that transforms him from within.
The JDDJ was subsequently ratified by the World Methodist Council (2006) and the World Communion of Reformed Churches (2017). It represents major ecumenical progress — not a Catholic capitulation on sola fide.
The magisterial answer: the Council of Trent (1547)
The Council of Trent devoted the bulk of its Session VI (13 January 1547) to the question of justification. The decree comprises sixteen doctrinal chapters and thirty-three canons — it is the Council’s most elaborate decree, the fruit of more than six months of intense theological debate (June 1546 – January 1547) between Dominican theologians (Thomist school) and Franciscans (Scotist school)[18]. Full text in Denzinger-Hünermann §§ 1520-1583.
Chapter 8 — justification begins with faith:
“When the Apostle says that man is justified by faith and freely (Rom 3:22, 24), these words must be understood in the sense in which the Catholic Church has held and expressed them by constant consent: we are said to be justified by faith, because faith is the beginning of man’s salvation, the foundation and root of all justification.” — Council of Trent, Session VI, ch. 8 (Denzinger § 1532)[19]
Canon 9 — the direct condemnation of sola fide:
“If anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith alone, meaning that nothing else is required to cooperate in obtaining the grace of justification [...] : let him be anathema.” — Council of Trent, Session VI, canon 9 (Denzinger § 1559)[20]
Canon 11 — against purely extrinsic imputation:
“If anyone says that men are justified either by the sole imputation of Christ’s righteousness, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of the grace and charity poured into their hearts by the Holy Spirit and inherent in them [...] : let him be anathema.” — Council of Trent, Session VI, canon 11 (Denzinger § 1561)[21]
Here lies the heart of the divergence: Trent affirms an infused righteousness (sanctifying grace truly dwells in the soul of the righteous) against the Lutheran extrinsic imputation (Christ’s righteousness covers the sinner without transforming him inwardly).
Pastoral synthesis: faith working through charity
The decisive Pauline formula
The Apostle Paul himself offers the masterly synthesis in one sentence:
“What counts is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, but faith working through charity.” — Galatians 5:6
It is the constant doctrine of the Catholic Church: living faith — faith that acts in charity — saves. Dead faith (without works), recognized as such by James (Jas 2:17), does not save. Paul and James do not contradict each other: they teach one and the same mystery.
Benedict XVI’s catechesis (26 November 2008)
During the Pauline Year (June 2008 – June 2009), Benedict XVI devoted his general audiences of 19 and 26 November 2008 to the question of justification. On 26 November, he defined the faith that justifies:
“This faith is communion with Christ, which the Lord gives us, and it thus becomes life, it conforms to Him. Or, in other words, if faith is true, if it is real, it becomes love, it becomes charity, it expresses itself in charity. A faith without charity, without this fruit, would not be a true faith. It would be a dead faith.” — Benedict XVI, general audience of 26 November 2008[22]
And he rules out any contradiction between Paul and James:
“Seen in this perspective, the central place of justification without works, the primary object of Paul’s preaching, does not at all contradict faith acting in love; on the contrary, it requires that our faith itself express itself in a life according to the Spirit.” — Benedict XVI, general audience of 26 November 2008[23]
Saint Thomas Aquinas — grace as a habitual gift
Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches in the Summa theologiae (Iª-IIae, q. 110, De gratia Dei quantum ad eius essentiam) that grace puts something in the soul (a. 1: utrum gratia ponat aliquid in anima): sanctifying grace is a real quality infused in the soul (a. 2: utrum gratia sit qualitas animae; a donum habituale, a quality inherent in the soul), distinct from God’s mere external favour[24].
This Thomist position, taken up by Trent, stands frontally opposed to the Lutheran conception of extrinsic righteousness.
Catherine of Genoa — sanctification continuing beyond death
Purgatory is doctrinally linked to the Catholic conception of justification. CCC §§ 1030-1032 teaches that souls who die in God’s grace but imperfectly purified undergo a final purification. This doctrine implies that justification is not a purely instantaneous, juridical act (as in Lutheran sola fide) but a progressive process of sanctification extending beyond death.
The Italian mystic saint Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510) devoted her Trattato del Purgatorio (c. 1500) to showing that this purification, far from being an externally imposed punishment, is the inward completion of the work of sanctification begun here below — faith becoming perfect love, unto the face-to-face with God[25].
C. S. Lewis — the image of the scissors
Even in Anglican thought, the tension between faith and works is acknowledged as insuperable on strict sola fide lines. C. S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity (1952), formulates the now-classic image:
“Christians have often wondered whether what brings the Christian home is rather good actions or faith in Christ. [...] It seems to me like asking which of the two blades of a pair of scissors is most necessary.” — C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book III, ch. 12, Geoffrey Bles, London, 1952[26]
To go further
- Sola Scriptura — Scripture Alone — the other founding principle of the Reformation
- Martin Luther — the historical initiator of the Reformation
- The Council of Trent — the complete Catholic magisterial answer
- Purgatory — the final sanctification of the righteous
- The Real Eucharistic Presence — the other great sacramental controversy
Notes and References
Martin Luther, Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen (“Open Letter on Translating”), 8 September 1530, passage on Rom 3:28. Critical text in D. Martin Luthers Werke (Weimarer Ausgabe, WA), Hermann Böhlau Nachfolger, Weimar, 1909, vol. 30/II, pp. 627-646. Article’s translation.
1Martin Luther, Vorlesung über den Römerbrief 1515-1516, scholion on Rom 7. Critical edition: Johannes Ficker (ed.), D. Martin Luthers Werke, Hermann Böhlau, Weimar, 1938, vol. 56, p. 70 (cited by convention “WA 56, 70”). Article’s translation.
2Martin Luther, Schmalkaldische Artikel, drafted in December 1536, published in 1538. Reference German text in Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 12th ed., Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1998, p. 415 ff. French translation in Le Livre de Concorde, Olivétan, Lyon, 2008. See also the text on the United Lutheran Church website: egliselutherienne.org.
3Joseph A. Fitzmyer S.J., Romans: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, Anchor Bible 33, Doubleday, New York, 1993, 793 pp., ISBN 978-0-385-49633-8. Fitzmyer (1920-2016), emeritus professor of Bible at the Catholic University of America, member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission (1969-1973 and 1984-1995). Revised edition at Yale University Press, 2008.
4N. T. Wright, Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision, IVP Academic, Downers Grove (Illinois), 2009, 280 pp., ISBN 978-0-8308-3863-9. Work of debate published in reply to John Piper, The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright (Crossway 2007). The quotation stands on p. 132; article’s translation.
5 7N. T. (Tom) Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2013, 2 vol., 1660 pp., ISBN 978-0-8006-2683-9. Wright (b. 1948), Anglican Bishop of Durham (2003-2010), then professor of New Testament at St Andrews and Wycliffe Hall (Oxford). His redefinition of dikaiosynē (“righteousness”) as “faithfulness to the covenant” is central to § 10.
6Martin Luther, Vorrede zum Neuen Testament, Septembertestament, September 1522 (formula absent from later revised prefaces). Critical edition: D. Martin Luthers Werke. Die Deutsche Bibel, Hermann Böhlau, Weimar, 1931, vol. 6, p. 10. English translation in Luther’s Works, vol. 35 (Word and Sacrament I), Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1960, p. 362. The closing order of the Septembertestament (Hebrews, James, Jude, Revelation, unnumbered) is established by the 1522 copy itself.
8 9Council of Trent, Session VI, Decree on Justification, chapter 7 (“On what the justification of the impious is and its causes”), 13 January 1547. Denzinger-Hünermann §§ 1528-1531. Latin text: “... in ipsa iustificatione cum remissione peccatorum haec omnia simul infusa accipit homo per Iesum Christum, cui inseritur: fidem, spem et caritatem. Nam fides, nisi ad eam spes accedat et caritas, neque unit perfecte cum Christo, neque corporis eius vivum membrum efficit.” French translation in Les conciles œcuméniques, ed. Giuseppe Alberigo, Cerf, Paris, 1994, vol. II/2.
10Second Council of Orange, 3 July 529, presided by Saint Caesarius of Arles, twenty-five canons condemning semi-Pelagianism and affirming the absolute necessity of prevenient grace (including for the initium fidei, the beginning of faith). Canons confirmed by Pope Boniface II (letter Per filium nostrum, 25 January 531), which confers magisterial authority on them. Text in Denzinger-Hünermann §§ 370-397.
11Saint Augustine, De gratia et libero arbitrio ad Valentinum et cum illo monachos Hadrumetinos liber unus, written in 426-427 and addressed to the monks of Hadrumetum (present-day Sousse, Tunisia). Reference Latin text: Patrologia Latina 44, col. 881-912 (J.-P. Migne, Paris, 1865). French translation: Œuvres de saint Augustin, “Bibliothèque augustinienne” series no. 24, Études Augustiniennes, Paris, 1962.
12Saint Augustine, Epistola 194 ad Sixtum presbyterum (c. 418), chapter 5, § 19: “Si ergo Dei dona sunt merita tua, non Deus coronat merita tua tamquam merita tua, sed tamquam dona sua.” Latin text in Patrologia Latina 33, col. 874-891. Critical edition: Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (CSEL) 57, pp. 176-214, Vienna, 1911. Article’s translation. This letter, written shortly after the anti-Pelagian Council of Carthage of 418, is the fullest formulation of the Augustinian doctrine of gratuitous merit; the Catechism (§ 2009) takes up its doctrine via sermon 298, 4-5 (PL 38, 1367).
13Council of Trent, Session VI, canon 32, Denzinger § 1582. Article’s translation from the Denzinger Latin. Latin text: “Si quis dixerit, hominis iustificati bona opera ita esse dona Dei, ut non sint etiam bona ipsius iustificati merita, aut ipsum iustificatum bonis operibus, quae ab eo per Dei gratiam et Iesu Christi meritum (cuius vivum membrum est) fiunt, non vere mereri augmentum gratiae, vitam aeternam et ipsius vitae aeternae (si tamen in gratia decesserit) consecutionem, atque etiam gloriae augmentum: anathema sit.”
14Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification by the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church, Augsburg, 31 October 1999. Official text (online English version) on the Dicastery for Christian Unity website; official French translation. Signatories: for Rome, Cardinal Edward Cassidy; for the LWF, Bishop Christian Krause. Joined by the world Methodist family in 2006 and the World Communion of Reformed Churches in 2017.
15JDDJ, § 15: official English text (“Together we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works”). Full text: “Together we confess: it is by grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, that we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit who renews our hearts, equips and calls us to good works.”
16JDDJ, Official Common Statement, § 1, appended to the JDDJ and signed the same day (official text online). Official French translation. This declaration is required for the JDDJ’s validity: it is the two Churches’ formal commitment to the text.
17Hubert Jedin, A History of the Council of Trent, vol. II: The First Sessions at Trent, 1545-1547, trans. Ernest Graf, Thomas Nelson, London and Edinburgh, 1961, ch. IX-XI (on the drafting of the Session VI decree). Original edition: Geschichte des Konzils von Trient, Band II, Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1957. The debate on justification ran from June 1546 to January 1547.
18Council of Trent, Session VI, Decree on Justification, chapter 8, 13 January 1547. Latin text in Heinrich Denzinger and Peter Hünermann, Enchiridion symbolorum, definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum, 44th edition, Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau, 2014, § 1532, ISBN 978-3-451-37804-1. French translation in Les conciles œcuméniques, ed. Giuseppe Alberigo, Cerf, Paris, 1994, vol. II/2, pp. 1525-1545.
19Council of Trent, Session VI, canon 9, Denzinger § 1559. Article’s translation from the Denzinger Latin.
20Council of Trent, Session VI, canon 11, Denzinger § 1561. Article’s translation from the Denzinger Latin.
21Benedict XVI, general audiences on Saint Paul of 19 November 2008 and 26 November 2008, within the Pauline Year (June 2008 – June 2009). Official French texts on vatican.va and vatican.va. Catecheses collected in Catéchèses sur saint Paul, Bayard, Paris, 2009.
22 23Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, Iª-IIae, q. 110 (De gratia Dei quantum ad eius essentiam), articles 1-4. Reference Latin text: Leonine edition, Rome, 1888-1906. French translation: Cerf, Somme théologique, Paris, various editions. The Thomist argument on grace as qualitas inhaerens animae grounds the Tridentine position.
24Saint Catherine of Genoa (Caterina Fieschi Adorno, 1447-1510), Trattato del Purgatorio, written c. 1500, published at Genoa in 1551 by her confessor Cattaneo Marabotto. Critical Italian edition: Umile Bonzi da Genova (ed.), S. Caterina Fieschi Adorno, 2 vol., Marietti, Turin, 1960-1962. French translation: Traité du Purgatoire, Téqui, Paris, 1990, ISBN 978-2-85244-787-2. Saint canonized on 18 June 1737 by Clement XII.
25C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Mere Christianity, Geoffrey Bles, London, 1952, Book III, ch. 12 (“Faith”): the image of the two scissor blades is literal (“asking which blade in a pair of scissors is most necessary”). The work gathers the BBC talks given in 1941-1944. Reference edition: HarperOne, San Francisco, 2001, 227 pp., ISBN 978-0-06-065292-0. Article’s translation.
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