On the Bondage of the Will

The Bondage (Eng. " About the enslaved will" ) is a font of Martin Luther in December 1525. It was in response to the humanist doctrine of the Dutchman Erasmus of Rotterdam, and in particular the treatise De libero arbitrio ( September 1524 ), written and is considered one of the most important theological texts of Martin Luther.

Content

Arbitrium is the Latin word for " election fund", in contrast to voluntas, which means the will as powerful unconcern.

Theme of Scripture Luther is repeatedly discussed question of Christian thought, whether humans have retained the freedom after the fall, to decide on their own for the grace of God, or whether this decision itself is already a gift of grace. With Paul and Augustine and against the optimistic anthropology of humanism Luther emphasizes strongly the sole efficacy of grace.

He denied emphatically that, in respect of the will of God that man has a free will, so opposite to what causes salvation. About eternal salvation or eternal damnation decided solely by the sovereign will of God. Since man has no free will.

Multiple sets in de Bondage of how

And the subsequent confrontations among other Erasmus of Rotterdam mean that Luther's theology is usually construed prädestinatorisch. John Calvin joined this theological perspective, Philipp Melanchthon sought, however, in his Confessio Augustana (CA 18) rather close to the position of the Catholic Church.

Expenditure

• Martin Luther: The Bondage; In: D. Martin Luthers Werke. Critical Edition, Volume 18; Weimar 1883ff. ; 600-787.
• Martin Luther: The Bondage; in: Wilfried Harle (ed.): Latin - German edition study 1 Man before God; Leipzig 2006.
• Martin Luther: The Bondage of the Will;: Kurt Aland (ed.): German Luther. The works of the reformer in a new selection for the present, Volume 3; Stuttgart, Göttingen, 1961ff. ; Pp. 151-334.