Hey terrans. I have a problem. I picked me up a book there recently, and now it won’t go away. The little stow-away is Human Freedom: [insert the rest of an impressively long title that thinks it’s published in 1821] by Dr. Timothy A. Stratton.* I think it's mad that I haven’t gotten to it, so it's waiting patiently, asserting itself by taking up space among my effects. (Pushy little bugger, ain't it?) I do have other things to do, but for some reason, I can’t shelve this book until I finish it. So, I'm thinking… some variety, something besides the conservative thought, ya know it could be nice. And this book seems to be the book on its subject right now. Lucky me, it's also interesting, so yep, I’m a few chapters deep.
It’s organized fairly well. After the prolegomena, it starts with relevant bible passages, acknowledging their diverse interpretations as understandable if not always accurate. Then, it goes onto the phase of gleaning from the greats of yore, and Stratton makes an efficient move here. Rather than comb for the insights directly, he goes for the gold via big-name free-will thinkers. IT makes sense. To sift and sort out the best insights directly, that might be closer to a life-long project. I bet almost every thinker of every kind has thought about freewill. So, Stratton starts with the proximity of fellows like Augustine, Pelagius, Aquinas, Erasmus, Martin Luther, Calvin, Arminius, and Edwards. I’m on Augustine right now, and it is pretty interesting.
After his big historical phase, Stratton waxes philosophical and theological, perhaps processing his thoughts along with theirs and coming up with… well I guess we’ll see. Next comes the secret sauce. He seems to build upon his results by repeating the process on a smaller level (with just Luis de Molina) and then processing the insights gleaned there. Finally, he closes with a note on the significance of his conclusion.
The book seems worth the read for the historical survey alone. (Readers will know I'm trying to learn more Terran lore.) But, there’s also the molinism thing. That is a huge plus. I am continually surprised when people with strong opinions on matters of free-will have never (or barely) heard of it. So, in short, I recommend the book (so far).
That's all for now. All the best.
– Pen
P.S. *Frankly, if it weren't a Terran book, I'd likely fault it for excluding elves and dwarves and all, but one has to be understanding about these things. Perhaps we could posit a hypothetical person of non-specific species, one yet of the general sentience supposed as being a subject of free-will in any of them. We could call him Willie. 🙂