Prevenient Grace

Also termed "preventing grace," prevenient grace is God's universal, unmerited grace that "goes before" any human action toward God and draws us into fellowship with God. This doctrine allowed Wesley to steer a "middle way" (via media) between Augustinian/Calvinistic predestination and Pharisaic/Pelagian works righteousness. While sin (both original and actual) deprives humans of any "natural" or "innate" relationship with God, prevenient grace initiates our restoration by enabling our capacity for and responsibility to God. Although not necessarily salvific in its own right, prevenient grace draws us, enlightens us, and convicts us, which may lead to repentance, faith, and salvation. [Although Wesley occasionally ties the idea of a "natural conscience" (see Sermon 85, "On Working Out Our Own Salvation," III.4; cf. II.1) to prevenient grace, he carefully notes that such gracious overtures are not "natural," per se, but are instead the effects of God's prevenient grace.]