God's Grace and Free Will According to Saint Augustine

Saint Augustine’s understanding of the grace of God and human beings’ free choice of the will underwent significant changes. On the one hand, Augustine never ceased to defend the existence of free choice of the will for the sake of goodness, omnipotence, and justice of God. On the other hand, as soon as he converted to Christianity he accentuated the role of God’s grace over human beings’ good actions. His growing concern for divine omnipotence forced him to accentuate the role of God’s grace while lessening the role of human beings’ free choice of the will in their good works. Augustine’s final views on the grace of God and human beings’ free choice of the will are in serious tension. His concern with the omnipotence of God caused him to give no role to human beings. Human beings after the fall cannot freely will or do anything unless God bestows His grace to them. Yet, to hold human beings responsible for the existence of sin, free will must exist. Therefore, Augustine argued that the disobedience of Adam and Eve removed the capability of doing good for all humanity.