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The Bondage of the Will Paperback
Written a mere eight years following the posting of the 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, the Bondage of the Will bears witness to how far and how fast Martin Luther's fire of reform spread through sixteenth century Europe.
This masterpiece of Reformation thought was witten to oppose the doctrine set forth by the renowned scholar Desiderius Erasmus in Diatribe of Free Will. In this book, he asserted that God's commands by implication meant that humans had the ability to obey. God would not command if obedience was not possible.
Luther disagreed, loudly colorfully and defly, that God's moral commands demonstrate instead that humans are incapable of obedience, that we lack--totally and without exception---any hope or ability within ourselves to obey God's commands or meet God's moral measure.
In this dialogue lies the core philosophical and theological debate of the Reformation and Protestant Christianity. Yet these are not merely academic arguments for Luther. Rather, within this doctrine
lies our entire understanding of grace, free will, and salvation.
This timeless translation by Henry Cole has been gently edited and styled for the modern reader, giving this classic text a fresh look for scholars and layperson alike.
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