Free Will, Moral Responsibility, and Reformed Theology - Analytic ...

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Paul L. Manata © 2011
As Carl Trueman puts it, given the biblical and confessional data on RT, the
philosophical theologian’s task is to elaborate “the necessary ontological
framework and logical consequences of such statements. This is not autonomous
metaphysics and logic gone mad; rather, it is them being used to explain how and
why these Scriptural statements can be said to be coherent and what they can be
said to imply.” 24 The ontological framework and logical implications are not
matters of confessional orthodoxy. Thus, we might expect more coherence and
elaboration as we work out what RT metaphysically presupposes and implies,
especially as philosophical theologians, who specialize in these kinds of things, do
this.
What RT means for human freedom and responsibility is largely a matter of
entailment, a logical and philosophical notion. So we must not mistake what
some Reformers might have said about free will that seem to imply they viewed
it as inconsistent with determinism for what the doctrines state or imply. Rather,
we must ask what RT entails about free will and moral responsibility. It is with
Jonathan Edwards that we begin to see the first attempt to rigorously and
consistently apply the implications and presuppositions of Reformed thought on
God’s decree, providence, and knowledge. 25 Thus, historian of philosophy Bruce
Kuklick notes, “Before Edwards, Calvinists and their opponents had not thought
through consistently what we now understand to be entailed by the demands of
determinism and freedom.” 26 While Kuklick overstates matters here, 27 he is
24 Carl Trueman, John Owen: Reformed Catholic, Renaissance Man (Ashgate, 2007), p.
65.
25 See Jonathan Edwards, Freedom of the Will (1754), available online at
, last
accessed 7/12/11.
26 Bruce Kuklick, A History of Philosophy in America 1720-­‐2000 (Oxford University
Press, 2003), p. 20.