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St. Anselm: another Christian response

St. Anselm: another Christian response to the free will problem

St. Anselm's solution to the appearant problem of God's foreknowledge and man's free will is a rather unique, and sophisticated approach, but I will do my best to present it in a way that is understandable. Anselm claims that there is NO difficulty, nor problem with man having complete free will (in that man can do what he wills without anyone or anything necessitating him to either do it or not do it), and God foreknowing all things (even when it seems clear that what God foreknows must occur). How does Anselm claim this is possible? He argues that God's foreknowledge of an action that I perform, say my plucking olives, is in such a way that He (God) knows that I am going to pluck olives, but He knows that I am going to pluck olives of my own free will.

"The foreknowledge from which necessity follows and the freedom of choice from which necessity is absent are here seen (for one who rightly understands it) to be not at all incompatible. For, on the one hand, it is necessary that what is foreknown by God be going to occur; and, on the other hand, God foreknows that something is going to occur without any necessity. Whether you sin or do not sin, in either case it will be without necessity; for God foreknows that it is without necessity that I am going to sin."

So we see Anselm's claim is that "free will" is sort of built into God's foreknowledge in that God knows what my future actions are and that I'm going to act them, but He knows that what my actions are are free actions: put yet another way, God knows that I'm going to act them, but He knows that I'm going to act them freely.

This view might grate your ears, or it might cause you to feel as there is at least some intuition that is being ignored here, but this is the view in a nutshell, and the attacks will have to wait until another day. For I am still setting out numerous Christian responses, hoping that in this process a view wil present itself that will satisfy our philosophical needs. Furthermore, this view may turn out to be the view that is most helpful when answering the determinist. Often the view that seems the most absurd (on a surface reading) turns out to be the most sublime and full of truth upon further study.