Editing Pelagianism (section)

===Contemporary responses===
[[John Rawls]] was a critic of Pelagianism, an attitude that he retained even after becoming an atheist. His anti-Pelagian ideas influenced his book ''[[A Theory of Justice]]'', in which he argued that differences in productivity between humans are a result of "moral arbitrariness" and therefore unequal wealth is undeserved.{{sfn|Nelson|2019|pp=50, 53}} In contrast, the Pelagian position would be that human sufferings are largely the result of sin and are therefore deserved.{{sfn|Nelson|2019|p=51}} According to Nelson, many contemporary [[social liberals]] follow Rawls rather than the older liberal-Pelagian tradition.{{sfn|Nelson|2019|p=49}}

The conflict between Pelagius and the teachings of Augustine was a constant theme throughout the works of [[Anthony Burgess]], in books including ''[[A Clockwork Orange (novel)|A Clockwork Orange]]'', ''[[Earthly Powers]]'', ''[[A Vision of Battlements]]'' and ''[[The Wanting Seed]]''.<ref>[https://www.anthonyburgess.org/blog-posts/the-earthly-powers-bookshelf-augustines-confessions/ 'Augustine's Confessions', The International Anthony Burgess Foundation]</ref>