Free Will
Are we truly free to choose the good after the fall? Centuries of debate hinge here
Free will is the human capacity for self-determined moral choice, affirmed by early writers like Justin and Origen and explored deeply by Augustine. The traditions differ over its scope after the fall and how it relates to grace: this is the heart of the Augustinian–Pelagian dispute and later of Reformation and synergist debates. Some stress grace's priority in enabling every good choice, while others emphasize the will's cooperation with grace.
How it traveled
- RomansCorinth · 67explains
- MatthewAntioch · 80explains
- The Homilies of St. John ChrysostomConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407explains
- Homilies on First CorinthiansConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407explains
- The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the RomansConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407explains
- A Commentary on the Acts of the ApostlesConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407explains
- The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Philippians, Colossians, and ThessaloniansConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407explains
- The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and PhilemonConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407explains
- The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. JohnConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407explains
- The Commentary and Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Galatians and EphesiansConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407explains
- City of GodHippo Regius · 430explains
- A Treatise Against Two Letters of the PelagiansHippo Regius · 430explains
- The ConfessionsHippo Regius · 430explains
- A Treatise on Nature and GraceHippo Regius · 430explains
- Letters of St. AugustinHippo Regius · 430explains
- A Treatise on Grace and Free WillHippo Regius · 430explains
- A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original SinHippo Regius · 430explains
- Expositions on the Book of PsalmsHippo Regius · 430explains
- A Treatise on the Predestination of the SaintsHippo Regius · 430explains
- A Treatise on Rebuke and GraceHippo Regius · 430explains
- A Work on the Proceedings of PelagiusHippo Regius · 430explains
- Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. JohnHippo Regius · 430explains
- A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in RighteousnessHippo Regius · 430explains
- On Marriage and ConcupiscenceHippo Regius · 430explains
- A Treatise on the Soul and its OriginHippo Regius · 430explains
- A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of InfantsHippo Regius · 430explains
- Treatise on Man (qq[75]-102)Paris · 1274explains
- Treatise on the Conservation and Government of Creatures (qq[103]-119)Paris · 1274explains
- Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90)Paris · 1274explains
- Treatise on the Incarnation (qq[1]-59)Paris · 1274explains
- Treatise on the Angels (qq[50]-64)Paris · 1274explains
- Discussion: Second PartWittenberg · 1546applies
- Discussion: First PartWittenberg · 1546explains
- Discussion: Third PartWittenberg · 1546challenges
- Book Second. of the Knowledge of God the Redeemer, in Christ, as First Manifested to the Fathers, Under the Law, and Thereafter to Us Under the GospelGeneva · 1564redefines
- Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from ItGeneva · 1564explains
- a careful and strict inquiry into the prevailing notions of the freedom of willNorthampton, Massachusetts · 1758explains
- The great christian doctrine of original sin defendedNorthampton, Massachusetts · 1758explains
- Seventeen Occasional SermonsNorthampton, Massachusetts · 1758explains
- XIV Five discourses on the soul's eternal salvationNorthampton, Massachusetts · 1758explains
Key passages(20)
The Problem of Pain · C. S. Lewis
Sect. XXIX. — BUT we will grant you, if you please ‘that they were all saints, that they all had the Spirit, that they all wrought miracles’(which, however, you do not require.) But tell me this — was
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The Sovereignty of God · Martin Luther
Sect. XXVI. — AND now, what if I prove from your own words, on which you assert the freedom of the will, that there is no such thing as “Free- will” at all! What if I should make it manifest that you
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Against Heresies: Book IV · Irenaeus of Lyons
1. This expression [of our Lord], “How often would I have gathered thy children together, and thou wouldest not,”ad utendum sententia) of God voluntarily, and not by compulsion of God. For there is no
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Bardesan. The Book of the Laws of Divers Countries. · Memoirs of Edessa and Other Ancient Syriac Documents
Ancient Syriac Documents. ———————————— Bardesan. The Book of the Laws of Divers Countries. Some days since we were calling “Avida here,” said we to him, “was saying to us, ‘If God is one, as ye s
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Discussion: First Part · Martin Luther
Sect. LXXV. — AFTER this, it comes to Paul also, the most determined enemy to “Free-will,” and even he is dragged in to confirm “Free-will;” “Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness, and patience
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Discussion: Third Part · Martin Luther
Sect. CLXIII. — I WILL produce yet one more passage from John, where, he saith, “The Spirit shall reprove the world of sin, because they believe not in me.” (John xvi. 9). You here see, that it is si
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Discussion: Third Part · Martin Luther
Sect. CXLVIII. — THIS also, is no powerless thunder-bolt where the apostle says, “All have sinned and are without the glory of God: for there is no difference.” (Rom. iii. 23). What, I pray you, coul
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Sect. XL. — HERE, therefore, I hold you fast in a last-pinch syllogism (as they say). For either the one or the other of your assertions must be false. Either that, where you say, ‘those men were admi
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But lest some suppose, from what has been said by us, that we say that whatever happens, happens by a fatal necessity, because it is foretold as known beforehand, this too we explain. We have learned
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Treatise on Man (qq[75]-102) · Thomas Aquinas
The adventitious qualities are habits and passions, by virtue of which a man is inclined to one thing rather than to another. And yet even these inclinations are subject to the judgment of reason. Suc
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Treatise on Man (qq[75]-102) · Thomas Aquinas
I answer that, The proper act of free-will is choice: for we say that we have a free-will because we can take one thing while refusing another; and this is to choose. Therefore we must consider the na
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John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith · John of Damascus
Confessing, then, the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, to be perfect God and perfect man, we hold that the same has all the attributes of the Father save that of being ingenerate, and all the attributes o
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A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 7.—He Concludes that He Does Not Deprive the Wicked of Free Will. It is not, therefore, true, as some affirm that we say, and as that correspondent of yours ventures moreover to write, that “
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A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 9 [V.]—He Replies to the Calumnies of the Pelagians. And now we must look to those things which they objected to us in their letters, and briefly mentioned. And to these this is my answer. We
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A Treatise on Grace and Free Will · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 31 [XV.]—Free Will Has Its Function in the Heart’s Conversion; But Grace Too Has Its. Lest, however, it should be thought that men themselves in this matter do nothing by free will, it is sai
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A Treatise on Grace and Free Will · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 6 [IV.]—God’s Grace to Be Maintained Against the Pelagians; The Pelagian Heresy Not an Old One. It is, however, to be feared lest all these and similar testimonies of Holy Scripture (and undo
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A Treatise on Grace and Free Will · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 27 [XIV.]—Grace Effects the Fulfilment of the Law, the Deliverance of Nature, and the Suppression of Sin’s Dominion. It has, however, been shown to demonstration that instead of really mainta
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A Treatise on Grace and Free Will · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 7.—Grace is Necessary Along with Free Will to Lead a Good Life. Therefore, my dearly beloved, as we have now proved by our former testimonies from Holy Scripture that there is in man a free d
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A Treatise on Grace and Free Will · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 2 [II.]—He Proves the Existence of Free Will in Man from the Precepts Addressed to Him by God. Now He has revealed to us, through His Holy Scriptures, that there is in a man a free choice of
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Modern teachers who discuss this idea
Modern and living teachers whose books take up Free Will. These works are still in copyright, so we can’t show the text here — each links out to the book.
- C. S. LewisThe Problem of Pain(1940)View on Amazon→