Abstract

This thesis challenges the more commonly held position that there is a single Augustinian position on the questions of predestination and human free choice of the will. It traces a progression of positions which starts with human free choice, and ends in double predestination and the denial of free choice. ;In his early writings, Augustine's view of the world and of salvation, is basically Neo-platonic: lower things are subject to higher things in a morally ordered hierarchy. Humans have transgressed the eternal law of this hierarchy, and love themselves, or that which is below them, rather than that which is above them. Salvation is effected by turning around through an act of will, and, through love and moral activity, moving up the ladder to God. Grace is power aiding the will in making the choice, and aiding moral acts. ;In his study of Paul, Augustine discovers the concept of grace as the gratuitous gift of God. In his work to Simplician , he concludes that God's will alone controls who is saved. It is not because God finds something good in Jacob that God chooses Jacob over Esau, but because God makes Jacob good. This concept of grace challenges the Neo-platonic world-view, since it places everything concerning salvation into the hands of God. ;Augustine solves the conflict by resorting to double predestination, placing the decision of who is saved and who is condemned in the Eternal Decree of God before the foundation of the world. This affects human freedom, since the concept of free choice is called into question. In his final works , he redefines human freedom from meaning the ability to decide between good and evil and then acting on that decision, to meaning that one freely wills what one wills: a good will freely wills good, and an evil will freely wills evil. Whether one's will is good or evil is God's decision in predestination