On the Bondage of the Will
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On the Bondage of the Will (Latin, De Servo Arbitrio, literally, "Concerning Bound Choice"), by Martin Luther, was published in December 1525. It was his reply to Desiderius Erasmus's De Libero Arbitrio or On Free Will, which had appeared in September 1524 as Erasmus's first public attack on Luther, after being wary about the methods of the reformer for many years. At issue was whether human beings, after the Fall of Man, are free to choose good or evil. The debate between Luther and Erasmus is one of the earliest of the Reformation over the issue of free will.
Luther maintained that sin incapacitates human beings from working out their own salvation, that they are completely unable to bring themselves to God. In this treatise, he begins by examining Erasmus's argument. He then discusses the power and complete sovereignty of God and lays out his own argument. His conclusions are that unredeemed human beings are dominated by Satan: Satan as the prince of this world never lets go of what he considers his own unless he is overpowered by a stronger power, i.e. God. When God redeems a person, he redeems the entire person, including the will, which then is liberated to serve God.
In early 1526, Erasmus replied to this work with the first part of his two volume Hyperaspistes, but this was a long and complex work which did not gain much popular recognition.
Luther was proud of his On the Bondage of the Will so much so that in a July 9, 1537 letter to Wolfgang Capito he wrote:
Regarding [the plan] to collect my writings in volumes, I am quite cool and not at all eager about it because, roused by a Saturnian hunger, I would rather see them all devoured. For I acknowledge none of them to be really a book of mine, except perhaps the one On the Bound Will and the Catechism.[1]
[edit] Notes
- ^ LW 50:172-173. Luther compares himself to Saturn, a figure from Ancient Greek mythology who devoured most of his children. Luther wanted to get rid of many of his writings except for the two mentioned.
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[edit] English translations
- Packer, J.I. and Johnston, O.R. trans. Martin Luther on The Bondage of the Will: A New Translation of De Servo Arbitrio (1525) Martin Luther's Reply to Erasmus of Rotterdam. Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1957.
- Rupp, E. Gordon; Marlow, A.N.; Watson, Philip S.; and Drewery, B. trans. and eds. Luther and Erasmus: Free Will and Salvation. The Library of Christian Classics. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1969. This volume provides an English translation of both Erasmus's De Libero Arbitrio and Luther's De Servo Arbitrio.
- Watson, Philip S. and Benjamin Drewery. Career of the Reformer III. Vol. 33: Luther's Works. 55 vols. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972.
