free will
idea · 7 works · 10 mentions · 16 anchored passages
autexousion · free-will · freedom of will · his own free choice · matter of free will · power in us inborn, of some free act · self-determination · the free power of the will · the will and a choice · voluntary choice
spoken of as
1 expressionAutexousion“free will”1 mention
De Anima (Latin)
This will be the power of divine grace, more powerful assuredly than nature, having in us the free power of the will subject to itself, which is called ‘autexousion’;
in the texts
Stromata
Doctrine that moral choice, not God, is responsible for evil.
" And Plato shows forth free will by these words:
But as many as have not perceived the self-determined and unenslaved character of the human soul as regards its choice of life, being vexed at the things done through the injustice that comes of want of education, do not believe that God exists.
Everything, then, that did not hinder a man's choice from being voluntary, God both made and showed to be helpful toward virtue, so that in some way, even to those who can discern but dimly, the one truly almighty God might be shown to be good, saving from age to age through the Son, but in no way and by no means the cause of evil.
Barlaam and Josaphat
The capacity for self-determined choice attributed to both angels and man, used for good or evil.
' Now one of the aforesaid angelic powers, a leader of one host, having in himself no trace whatever of natural evil from the Creator, but having come into being for good, by his own free choice turned from the good to the evil, and was lifted up in madness, wishing to rise against the Master and God.
according to the image, by reason of its intelligence and free will;
Yet it does not take away free will, nor does it carry forgiveness of the sins committed after baptism, nor a second descent into the font.
De Anima
The soul's endowed capacity for free choice.
For we gave it both freedom of will, as we wrote above, and dominion over things, and divination at times — setting aside that which comes by the grace of God from prophecy.
If livid bruise and redness is a passion of the blood, there will be no blood without a soul;
This will be the power of divine grace, more powerful assuredly than nature, having in us the free power of the will subject to itself, which is called ‘autexousion’;
De Rerum Natura
The doctrine of free will grounded physically in the atomic swerve: the human mind's capacity to initiate action not wholly determined by prior blows or weight.
This power in us inborn, of some free act.
Whence this free will for creatures o'er the lands,
Whence is it wrested from the fates,- this will
The Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1625–1660
The doctrine of free will, one of the theological topics ministers were discouraged from preaching on.
as namely, the doctrine of predestination, of free grace, of perseverance, of original sin remaining after baptism, of the sabbath, the doctrine against universal grace, election for faith foreseen, free-will against antichrist, non-residents, human inventions in God’s worship;
De Exhortatione Castitatis Liber
The human capacity to choose for or against the will of God, argued at length through the example of Adam's transgression.
Accordingly you too, if you obey not God, who has constituted you, by the setting forth of a precept, of free power, willingly through the freedom of your will swerve into that which God does not will, and so you think yourself overthrown by the devil — who, even if he wills you to will what God does not will, yet does not bring it about that you also will it, since not even then did he subdue tho …
Cyropaedia
Capacity to choose one's loves, contrasted with unavoidable natural necessities.
Why Cyrus, said the young man breaking into a laugh, you do not think, do you, that human beauty is able to compel a man against his will to act contrary to his own best interests?
But love is a matter of free will;
for it is a matter of free will, and each one loves what he pleases.