Free Will Revisited: A Respectful Response to Luther, Calvin, and Edwards - Hardcover

by Robert E. Picirilli (Author)

Whether man has free will continues to be a hot topic among Bible teachers and theologians. After defining the issues involved, from both a worldview and a biblical standpoint, this work devotes three chapters to exploring the single-volume treatments against free will by the great theologians Luther, Calvin, and Edwards. The author then responds to the major issues involved in their objections to free will: foreknowledge and necessity, human depravity and the grace of God, the sovereignty and all-encompassing providence of God, and Edwards's rationalistic argument. In each instance, the doctrine of free will, rightly understood, is in full and biblical accord with these concerns. A concluding chapter summarizes and expresses the bottom-line differences in the doctrine of salvation between the Arminian and the Calvinistic wings of reformed theology.

Author Biography

Robert E. Picirilli is professor emeritus (New Testament and philosophy) at Welch College in Gallatin, Tennessee. He is author of Grace, Faith, Free Will, Paul the Apostle, and numerous other works and journal articles. He is also the editor of the Randall House Bible Commentary on the New Testament.