What do you think?
Rate this book
Augustine: On the Free Choice of the Will, On Grace and Free Choice, and Other Writings
The works translated here deal with two major themes in the thinking of St Augustine (354–430): free will and divine grace. On the one hand, free will enables human beings to make their own choices; on the other hand, God's grace is required for these choices to be efficacious. 'On the Free Choice of the Will', 'On Grace and Free Choice', 'On Reprimand and Grace' and 'On the Gift of Perseverance' set out Augustine's theory of human responsibility, and sketch a subtle reconciliation of will and grace. This volume is the first to bring together Augustine's early and later writings on these two themes, in a new translation by Peter King, enabling the reader to see what Augustine regarded as the crowning achievement of his work. The volume also includes a clear and accessible introduction that analyzes Augustine's key philosophical lines of thought.
306 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 30, 2006
About the author
Peter King
5 books1 followerPeter King is Professor of Philosophy and of Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto. He is the editor and translator of Augustine: Against the Academicians and The Teacher (1995).
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 19, 2025
‘Fucking saint of a guy! No foolin’. Patron Saint of Hippopotami. Let that be a warning to whoever’s the patron saint of lions; hippos are the true kings of the jungle, always popping a lion’s head off. Or, King of Kings, as it were. It’s true; I saw it on the tee-vee.
(Obligated work reading. While Augustine’s spirit and scholarship are always beyond reproach, I’m rating the edition as 4. You’d expect better than the ‘Who Auggie?’ introductory errata from Cambridge. You’d be wrong.)
(Obligated work reading. While Augustine’s spirit and scholarship are always beyond reproach, I’m rating the edition as 4. You’d expect better than the ‘Who Auggie?’ introductory errata from Cambridge. You’d be wrong.)
November 6, 2026
Reading Augustine is so delightful for many reasons, but one of my favorites is because it’s so obvious when reading them, that the Reformers clearly loved this guy. Other than the Bible, Augustine is the most quoted person by Calvin!
Augustine was coined the Doctor of Grace and it is so evident in his works on Free Will! It is so refreshing to see him rigorously philosophically attempt to find satisfactory answers to the problems of Evil and Free Will vs God’s Sovereignty. He brings an incredibly transcendent view of God into his searches for answers that is noticeably absent from most modern attempts to reconcile these answers. The man literally speaks in Scripture. The Bible is so ingrained into this man and so is his reverence for God. This is easily my favorite treatise on Free Will or the Problem of Evil which I have read and Calvin’s ideas were not as new as we think they are!
Augustine was coined the Doctor of Grace and it is so evident in his works on Free Will! It is so refreshing to see him rigorously philosophically attempt to find satisfactory answers to the problems of Evil and Free Will vs God’s Sovereignty. He brings an incredibly transcendent view of God into his searches for answers that is noticeably absent from most modern attempts to reconcile these answers. The man literally speaks in Scripture. The Bible is so ingrained into this man and so is his reverence for God. This is easily my favorite treatise on Free Will or the Problem of Evil which I have read and Calvin’s ideas were not as new as we think they are!
May 13, 2026
En mycket svår, men mycket spännande bok. Augustinus är väldigt hit and miss för mig - å ena sidan skriver han högtravande och som ett skrälle; å andra sidan är han också ofta väldigt skarp. den formulering som bäst sammanfattar verket, är konstaterandet att en frukts smak inte försämras av att vi missbrukar den, vilket applicerat på vilja innebär att människan är ett konstverk även om vi inte är förmögna att bruka vår vilja till goda ändamål. Jag ser varför Luther älskade dessa böcker.
May 19, 2026
An excellent selection of texts with accompanying notes to aid understanding.
The book opens by reminding readers that Augustine wrote around 5 million words. That means that it is a potentially exhausting task for a reader to get a rounded grasp of Augustine’s thought. Matters are not helped on this particular topic of free will, as Augustine dealt with opponents taking opposite views to each other, and in each case he may have over-egged his overall position. Thus against the Fatalist Manachees he stressed the genuine freedom of the will. But against the extremist Pelagians, he stressed the need for God’s grace to enable freewill to function. By the end of his life he admitted that he could have been more careful to avoid appearances of conflict when he was writing with those opposite emphases.
The first text is a classic example of a dialogue text, where Augustine and Evodius argue about the nature of free will. While that style was popular in its day, it has the consequence of sometimes raising issues which it cannot get back to, to resolve. For example, in Bk 2 Evodius asks a very reasonable question about ‘if free will was given for acting rightly, does it not seem that it should be unable to be turned towards sinning…?’ (2.2.4.8). That is an excellent question. It is asking whether, if God is genuinely omnipotent, could God have not created free will in such a way that people wouldn’t sin (or perhaps sin as much). For example, perhaps people would faint or vomit every time they got an intention to murder? Surely that is logically possible, so shouldn’t God have done that, if God is genuinely all-good?
Sadly, that excellent question gets totally lost, as Augustine focuses instead upon proving that God exists and that their sensory experiences are true, and that people have genuinely got free will. And then its free will vs divine foreknowledge. Those are all interesting points… and they fit with the narrative that Augustine presents, but the issues are broader than Augustine covers, as we can see with Evodius’ lost question.
Reading through the set of texts, one of the things that jumps out is that Augustine is essentially making two main points. They are that humans have a genuine free will, which is sufficient for them to be morally responsible for what they do. Yet, God’s grace is also independent of that free will, and ‘in some sense’ causes human actions. Those difficult to reconcile positions are repeated again and again, as if simply repeating them with more and more and more biblical examples and texts to prove each thesis will make the point.
However, the deeper issue which prompted confusion in his readers and led them to request Augustine’s assistance is not so much a failure to know the biblical texts, its rather the apparent contradiction involved in insisting that humans are entirely free, and yet God’s grace causes their free will… They merit reward and punishment by their actions, but they cannot merit anything unless God’s grace is at work in them.
In fairness that logical question runs through the next fifteen hundred years of debate, so its hardly fair to blame Augustine for not answering it. But there are hints of possibly interesting thinking in what he does say, that could have been developed. For example the logical problem is partially due to assuming that human causality is an efficient causality, and that God’s causation is the same kind of causation. But perhaps (to use a later scholastic terminology) God’s causation is ‘formal’ rather than ‘efficient’ in which case there would be less scope to identify them as in conflict.
One of the enjoyable features of Augustine’s writing is that he is very honest. Where he is unsure what to say, then he admits it. For example, in On the Gift of Perseverance he comments on why the babies of members of the Church sometimes die before they can be baptised, whereas pagan parents can get their babies baptised. Why would God do that, given that the unbaptised babies are thereby deprived of heaven? Augustine, suggests a few lines of possible argument but also admits very clearly, ‘I don’t know which reply is possible.’
Overall, this is an excellent selection of texts with good clear translations which make it easy for readers to follow the argument which Augustine is presenting. The book will be of most interest to readers interested in St Augustine or the topics of Grace and Free Will.
The book opens by reminding readers that Augustine wrote around 5 million words. That means that it is a potentially exhausting task for a reader to get a rounded grasp of Augustine’s thought. Matters are not helped on this particular topic of free will, as Augustine dealt with opponents taking opposite views to each other, and in each case he may have over-egged his overall position. Thus against the Fatalist Manachees he stressed the genuine freedom of the will. But against the extremist Pelagians, he stressed the need for God’s grace to enable freewill to function. By the end of his life he admitted that he could have been more careful to avoid appearances of conflict when he was writing with those opposite emphases.
The first text is a classic example of a dialogue text, where Augustine and Evodius argue about the nature of free will. While that style was popular in its day, it has the consequence of sometimes raising issues which it cannot get back to, to resolve. For example, in Bk 2 Evodius asks a very reasonable question about ‘if free will was given for acting rightly, does it not seem that it should be unable to be turned towards sinning…?’ (2.2.4.8). That is an excellent question. It is asking whether, if God is genuinely omnipotent, could God have not created free will in such a way that people wouldn’t sin (or perhaps sin as much). For example, perhaps people would faint or vomit every time they got an intention to murder? Surely that is logically possible, so shouldn’t God have done that, if God is genuinely all-good?
Sadly, that excellent question gets totally lost, as Augustine focuses instead upon proving that God exists and that their sensory experiences are true, and that people have genuinely got free will. And then its free will vs divine foreknowledge. Those are all interesting points… and they fit with the narrative that Augustine presents, but the issues are broader than Augustine covers, as we can see with Evodius’ lost question.
Reading through the set of texts, one of the things that jumps out is that Augustine is essentially making two main points. They are that humans have a genuine free will, which is sufficient for them to be morally responsible for what they do. Yet, God’s grace is also independent of that free will, and ‘in some sense’ causes human actions. Those difficult to reconcile positions are repeated again and again, as if simply repeating them with more and more and more biblical examples and texts to prove each thesis will make the point.
However, the deeper issue which prompted confusion in his readers and led them to request Augustine’s assistance is not so much a failure to know the biblical texts, its rather the apparent contradiction involved in insisting that humans are entirely free, and yet God’s grace causes their free will… They merit reward and punishment by their actions, but they cannot merit anything unless God’s grace is at work in them.
In fairness that logical question runs through the next fifteen hundred years of debate, so its hardly fair to blame Augustine for not answering it. But there are hints of possibly interesting thinking in what he does say, that could have been developed. For example the logical problem is partially due to assuming that human causality is an efficient causality, and that God’s causation is the same kind of causation. But perhaps (to use a later scholastic terminology) God’s causation is ‘formal’ rather than ‘efficient’ in which case there would be less scope to identify them as in conflict.
One of the enjoyable features of Augustine’s writing is that he is very honest. Where he is unsure what to say, then he admits it. For example, in On the Gift of Perseverance he comments on why the babies of members of the Church sometimes die before they can be baptised, whereas pagan parents can get their babies baptised. Why would God do that, given that the unbaptised babies are thereby deprived of heaven? Augustine, suggests a few lines of possible argument but also admits very clearly, ‘I don’t know which reply is possible.’
Overall, this is an excellent selection of texts with good clear translations which make it easy for readers to follow the argument which Augustine is presenting. The book will be of most interest to readers interested in St Augustine or the topics of Grace and Free Will.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews