What is "monergism"

n. (context theology English) A Christian position holding that God, through the Holy Spirit, works to bring about effectually the salvation of individuals through spiritual regeneration without cooperation from the individual.

Monergism is the position in Christian theology that God, through the Holy Spirit, works to bring about the salvation of an individual through spiritual regeneration, irrespective of the individual's cooperation. Monergism is most often associated with Calvinism (such as Presbyterianism and the Dutch Reformed Church) and its doctrine of irresistible grace, and particularly with historical doctrinal differences between Calvinism and Arminianism. Monergistic salvation is also the soteriological position of Lutheranism, but in a different variation from the Reformed (as Lutheranism does not believe in the predestination of the damned).

This position contrasts with synergism: the belief that God and individuals cooperate, to bring individuals salvation.