Bound Choice, Election, and Wittenberg Theological Method: From Martin Luther to the Fomula of Concord

Galvanized by Erasmus' teaching on free will, Martin Luther wrote De servo arbitrio, or he Bondage of the Will, insisting that the sinful human will could not turn itself to God. In Bound Choice, Election, and Wittenberg Theological Method, respected scholar Robert Kolb initiates an investigation into the sixteenth-century reception of De servo. Kolb unpacks Luther's theology and recounts his followers' ensuing disputes until their resolution in the Lutheran churches' 1577 "Formula of Concord". Kolb's study into the problem of free will within early Lutheran theology serves as a notable and welcome contribution to sixteenth-century intellection and historical theology.