Born Slaves

The Bondage of the Will

Does man have something called ‘free-will’?  Can a man freely and without help turn to Christ for salvation from his sins?  This is the question that Luther tackled in The Bondage of the Will, his famous rebuttal to Erasmus’ previous work, On Free Will.

Luther was convinced that ‘free-will’ strikes at the heart of the biblical doctrine of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone.  Passionate and eager to refute this attack on the purity of Christ’s sacrifice, he wrote and published this impressive, fiery work in just over a year.  The Bondage of the Will helped shape the Reformation as well as the thinking of countless theologians – including Calvin and John Knox.

This edited version retains the distinctive style and voice of Luther but shortens the work to make it more accessible for a modern audience.