Grace (princess Monaco)

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grace. In Christian theology, the supernatural assistance of God bestowed upon a rational being with a view to his sanctification. While the need for this aid is generally admitted, the manner of it has been the subject of much discussion.

The theology of grace first emerged clearly in the controversy between St Augustine and Pelagius. Augustine regarded man, since the Fall, as totally evil and deserving of damnation; by himself fallen man could only sin, and grace was necessary for the performance of all good actions. Pelagius, on the other hand, held that man was free to choose the good and able to take the initial steps to salvation by his own efforts; grace was given that the commands of God might be more easily fulfilled. Though the logical inference of Augustine's teaching was predestination to damnation as well as to salvation, he himself sought to safeguard man's free will by various distinctions such as that between prevenient grace (i.e. grace antecedent to conversion) and subsequent grace, in which the Divine energy co-operates with man after his conversion. No such systematic development took place in the E. Church which continued to emphasize both the necessity of grace and the reality of human free will, and resisted the notion of predestination. Such ideas are reflected in the teaching of John Cassian, whose doctrine of grace was seen in the W. as an attempt to mediate between Augustine and Pelagius, and hence dubbed ‘Semipelagianism’. Cassian, while accepting Augustine's teaching on original sin, rejected total depravity, irresistible grace, and unconditional predestination. Though grace was universally necessary, the will remained free at all stages. The Second Council of Orange (529) attempted to settle the question on an Augustinian basis, with modifications; prevenient grace was held to be rendered necessary by the Fall, but emphasis was laid on human co-operation after conversion, and predestination to damnation was anathematized. The debate on the relationship of grace and free will continued, becoming acute in the controversy surrounding Gottschalk. In the 13th cent. St * Thomas Aquinas distinguished ‘habitual grace’ (which is held to be normally conveyed through the Sacraments), from ‘actual grace’ (which may exist in the unbaptized), while Duns Scotus emphasized the timelessness of God in relation to the theology of grace. The Reformers returned to a more rigid August-inianism. J. Calvin taught absolute predestination and added the doctrine of the indefectibility of grace. This teaching was challenged by J. Arminius and his followers (see ARMINIANISM). In the post-Reformation RC Church there have been two main controversies, that associated with the teaching of L. de Molina and the Jansenist controversy.

The exact relationship between the giving of grace and the reception of the Sacraments has given rise to similar problems. In the 20th cent. there were various attempts to cut through the complexities of the W. doctrine of grace, including the assertion of the primacy of the notion of uncreated grace (the Holy Spirit Himself) over the various classifications of created grace (the effects of the Spirit's operation).

grace / grās/ • n. 1. simple elegance or refinement of movement: she moved through the water with effortless grace. ∎  courteous goodwill: at least he has the grace to admit his debt to her. ∎  (graces) an attractively polite manner of behaving: she has all the social graces. 2. (in Christian belief) the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings. ∎  a divinely given talent or blessing: the graces of the Holy Spirit. ∎  the condition or fact of being favored by someone: he fell from grace because of drug use at the Olympics. 3. (also grace period) a period officially allowed for payment of a sum due or for compliance with a law or condition, esp. an extended period granted as a special favor: another three days' grace. 4. a short prayer of thanks said before or after a meal: before dinner the Reverend Newman said grace. 5. (His, Her, or Your Grace) used as forms of description or address for a duke, duchess, or archbishop: His Grace, the Duke of Atholl. • v. [tr.] do honor or credit to (someone or something) by one's presence: she bowed out from the sport she has graced for two decades. ∎  [tr.] (of a person or thing) be an attractive presence in or on; adorn: Ms. Pasco has graced the front pages of magazines like Elle and Vogue. PHRASES: be in someone's good (or bad) graces be regarded by someone with favor (or disfavor). there but for the grace of God (go I) used to acknowledge one's good fortune in avoiding another's mistake or misfortune. the (Three) Graces Greek Mythol. three beautiful goddesses (Aglaia, Thalia, and Euphrosyne), daughters of Zeus. They were believed to personify and bestow charm, grace, and beauty. with good (or bad) grace in a willing and happy (or reluctant and resentful) manner.

Grace.
1. In Christian theology, the expression of God's love in his free unmerited favour or assistance.

‘Grace’ then becomes a category for describing free and uncoerced actions in other religions, especially of Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā: see e.g. PRASĀDA; RĀMĀNUJA (for anugraha); PRAPATTI. As a concept, grace is of great importance for Sikhs, in Gurū Nānak's hymns and in all subsequent Sikh theology. Analogous to the benedictory glance of a human guru, this sense of God's loving favour is conveyed by the words praśad, kirpā, nadar, bakhśīś, bhāṇā, daiā, mihar, and taras. This concept of grace is not a denial of karma, but God's initiative can override the result of bad actions. However, the individual must strive to improve.

2. Short prayers of invocation and thanksgiving, before and after meals. They are natural and characteristic in Judaism. The Birkat ha-Mazon (blessing after meals) is a central liturgical practice in the observant Jewish home.

grace in Christian belief, the free and unmerited favour of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.

Grace in Christian usage also denotes a short prayer of thanks said before or after a meal.

The word is also used as a form of description or address for a duke, duchess, or archbishop: Her Grace, the Duchess of Omnium, Your Grace.
act of grace a privilege or concession that cannot be claimed as a right.
by the grace of God through God's favour, especially (translating Latin Dei gratia) appended to the formal statement of a monarch's title, and formerly to that of some ecclesiastical dignitaries.
grace and favour accommodation occupied by permission of a sovereign or government.
grace note an extra note added as an embellishment and not essential to the harmony or melody.
there but for the grace of God go I used to acknowledge one's good fortune in avoiding another's mistake or misfortune.

See also days of grace, graces, year of grace.

Grace 1929–82, princess consort of Monaco, b. Philadelphia as Grace Patricia Kelly. She acted on stage and television in New York, and made her film debut in 1951. Cool, blonde, and patrician, she became a major film star after her first Hollowood picture, High Noon (1952). Her major films include three released in 1954: Dial M For Murder and Rear Window, both directed by Alfred Hitchcock , and The Country Girl, for which she won an Academy Award. She also starred in To Catch a Thief (1955), The Swan (1956), and High Society (1956), among others. She retired from moviemaking in 1956 when she married Rainier III , the ruling prince of Monaco. Princess Grace died following an automobile accident (1982) in France.

Bibliography: See biographies by S. Bradford (1984), J. Spada (1987), R. Lacey (1994), J. Curtis (1998), and J. R. Taraborrelli (2003).

grace in Christian theology, the free favor of God toward humans, which is necessary for their salvation. A distinction is made between natural grace (e.g., the gift of life) and supernatural grace, by which God makes a person (born sinful because of original sin ) capable of enjoying eternal life. In general, the term grace is restricted to supernatural grace, usually considered as the keystone of the whole Christian theological system.

Supernatural grace is usually defined as being actual or sanctifying. Actual grace turns the soul to God; sanctifying grace confirms and perpetuates the ends of this conversion and makes the soul habitually good. Most theologies (except in Calvinism ), wishing to maintain humanity's freedom in addition to God's complete freedom in granting grace, distinguish prevenient grace, which frees a person and awakens him or her to God's call, from cooperating grace, by which God assists to salvation the free person who seeks it.

When God seems to confer on a person such actual grace that his or her conversion appears inevitable, the grace is said to be efficacious. The apparent difficulty of claiming that grace may be efficacious while a person is free was explained by St. Thomas Aquinas on the ground that it was a peculiar nature of this grace granted to some people that it should be ineluctable; it was this doctrine that Luis Molina and the Molinists disputed. Differing in effect from efficacious grace is merely sufficient grace, which, while sufficient to conversion, may be rejected by a person at will. Calvinism rejects merely sufficient grace, holding instead that grace is irresistible.

In every Christian theology God is considered to grant grace quite freely, since its gift is far greater than any person can merit. As to which persons are offered this grace, there is great difference. The generality hold that it is offered to people who place no obstacle in the way of salvation rather than to those who neglect what ways to grace they have been given; the Jansenists (see Jansen, Cornelis ), however, believed that grace was not given outside the church, and the Calvinists hold that it is offered only to those predestined to election.

Sanctifying grace may be said to succeed justification as actual grace precedes it. The operation of sanctifying grace brings holiness to the individual soul. The indwelling of God in the soul and the soul's actual participation in God's nature (in an indefinable manner) are the perfections of sanctifying grace. As to the means, there is a serious cleavage in Christianity, notably in regard to sacramental grace. According to Roman Catholics and Orthodox, the grace accompanying a sacrament is ex opere operato, i.e., by God's ordinance the sacrament actually confers grace, the good disposition of the minister being unimportant and that of the recipient being not always a condition; Protestants hold that the sacraments are ex opere operantis, i.e., the faith of the recipient is all-important, and the sacrament is the sign, not the source of grace.

Certain Christian systems have developed quite different ideas of grace, and Pelagianism has its advocates in liberal 20th-century Protestantism. The great emphasis on grace is a distinction of Christianity. In recent years among orthodox theologians there has been a renewed interest in the theology of grace. Among traditional usages, they distinguish three forms of grace: God's communication of Himself to the Christian soul is grace; the favorable attitude of God toward the soul is grace; the ontological modification of Christian life by God's favor is grace.

Grace ♀ From the abstract noun (via Old French, from Latin gratia), this name occurs occasionally in the 15th century, and by the 1540s was among the most popular girls' names in some parishes. It has always been particularly popular in Scotland and northern England (borne, for example, by Grace Darling, the lighthouse keeper's daughter whose heroism in 1838, saving sailors in a storm, caught the popular imagination). In more recent times it was famous as the name of the actress Grace Kelly (1928–82), who became Princess Grace of Monaco. In Ireland it is used as an Anglicized form of Gráinne.

grace favour XII; prayer of blessing or thanksgiving XIII; pleasing quality XIV. — (O)F. grâce, semi-pop. — L. grātia, f. grātus pleasing (see GRATEFUL).
So gracious XIII. Hence graceful in casual use from XV till late XVI, when the present senses begin. graceless XIV.

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