Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will" by Kenneth M. Wilson

Abstract

Because took from these philosophies, it does not necessarily mean that he took from them instead of Christian tradition (for example, reference to Christian view of free will [129, author's italics], as opposed to philosophical ones; or: Augustine appears unaware that his Stoic/ Ciceronian definition of omnipotence has carved a non-Christian caricature of God [189]). The claim in scholarship is often that continues in relentless continuity with these opinions for the rest of his life, indicating that prior to his interaction in the Pelagian controversy he already held these views, which were taken from his reading of scripture, traditional Christian doctrines, or both. Wilson argues that this anomaly of Simpl. 2, along with De libero arbitrio 3.47–3.54, is a later interpolation during Augustine's revision of the work and that he in fact did not establish his later doctrines of divine providence and human non-free free will due to inherited guilt (reatus) until the Pelagian controversy in 412 and that there is no clear precedent in previous Christian tradition for these doctrines.