CONFLICTING VISIONS OF HUMAN NATURE WORK TO KEEP IRELAND ASUNDER.(RELIGION)

Byline: Andrew Greeley

OXFORD, England -- A fundamental religious, moral, and political question in the West has been whether human nature is good or bad. Is humankind by itself able to do anything worthwhile, or is the only virtue humans display totally dependent on some external force?

The debate does not exist anywhere else in the world. It is a secular version of the great debate that raged in the late fourth and early fifth centuries between St. Augustine and the philosopher Pelagius.

It occurs to me, as I attend a conference here about Ireland, North and South, that Ireland could be the last place in the world where Pelagians and Augustinians …