Free Will and Original Sin
Free Will and Original Sin
Jonathan Edwards thought a misunderstanding of the human will was at the root of nearly all that had gone wrong in theology. Often dissatisfied with existing boundaries, he paid tribute in Freedom of the Will to intellectualists on the will by stipulating that the will always follows the last dictate of the understanding, which “is as the greatest apparent good is.” He concluded that there is no true freedom of the will when the will is indifferent or self-determined without influence or motive. In Original Sin he attempted two things: to establish universal depravity and to demonstrate the fact and justice of the imputation of Adam's sin. The end of the chapter considers philosophical objections to Edwards's occasionalism, and the charge that he strayed far from Calvin on the authorship of Adam's sin.
Keywords: free will, indifference, determinism, imputation, Adam's sin, occasionalism
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
