Bonhominalism
Bonhominalism is the belief that humans can do pure good, even without realignment.
Malhominalism is the belief that, ever since man's defection, humans cannot do pure good until realigned by God.
Bonhominalism reinforces enmity towards God by distracting from the recognition that all good choices we make have his grace as their sufficient cause.
| Heresy | False Belief | Truth | True Belief |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pelagianism | Humans are not predisposed to evil. | Antipelagianism | Humans are predisposed to evil. |
| Residualism | Unrealigned humans are only partly predisposed to evil. | Antiresidualism | Humans are fully predisposed to evil. |
| Synergism | Unrealigned humans are fully predisposed to evil except that they can trust God to realign them. | Monergism | Trusting God is an effect of realignment, not a cause of it. |
| Meritorialism | Realigned humans can do good that merits union with God. | Solafideism | The merit of the good that humans do is God's alone. |
"Bonhominalism" is from Latin bon "good", hominis "human". Likewise "Malhominalism" from Latin malus "bad".
Bonhominalism holds that notwithstanding anything that the human selfkind as a whole may have done, each human can do some good independently of any realigning work of God. This is either declared relatively openly (as in Pelagianism) or disguised, for instance by stipulating that the only such good choice is the choice to accept grace (Synergism) or by claiming that the good choices "proceed from grace" while being somehow independent of grace (Meritorialism).
Malhominalism holds that as a result of that defection humans are entirely predisposed to evil, and that any good they do flows solely from realignment by God and redounds to his credit alone.