Baptism communicates the remission of sins and inaugurates and empowers—but does not perfect—the fallen creature’s movement towards complete renewal. In Augustine’s attempts to check the perfectionist impulse of Pelagianism, much turned on the distinction between remission and perfect renovation. ‘It is not from the moment of a man’s baptism that all his old infirmity is destroyed, but renovation begins with the remission of all his sins … All things else, however, are accomplished in hope, looking