BOOK REVIEW: What About Free Will?: Reconciling Our Choices with God’s Sovereignty by Scott Christensen

This is how the conversations usually progress after I mention to someone that I am a pastor…

Someone: Where are you a Pastor?

Me: Covenant Reformed Church out on Ridge Road

Someone: Reformed, eh… So that means you believe in election, right?

Me: Yup…

Someone: So you don’t believe in free will, then?

Me: [Heavy inward sigh, followed by thinking -- ‘Not again!’]

I’m sure most of you have been there. The last statement is frustrating, irritating, and not a little bit hyperbolic and ignorant to suggest of any Reformed believer. But, since this misrepresentation is out there, and so many people buy into it, we need to have this question settled in our minds. Not simply as Reformed people, but as people who desire to take God at his word, and to follow it wherever it leads.

Sadly, most people - including most Reformed people - don’t realize that to understand ‘free will’ you need the right terms with agreed upon definitions, a lot of nuance, and a lot of qualifications. In fact, so convoluted is the term ‘free will’ it is despised by secular philosophers and theologians alike. In fact, even defining the term seems impossible. 

What About Free Will? Is the perfect book to help us get after the issues raised by the twin biblical realities of human self-determination (a better designation than ‘free will’) and absolute divine sovereignty. It is written by a pastor and is intended to provide simple insights into a complex topic. The book is well-organized, following a logical flow that helps readers track the presentation of the material with ease. Before getting into its content let me suggest a few really helpful aspects of the book.

First, each chapter ends with a glossary of important terms which are then collected in the back of the book. This glossary is an invaluable resource for making sense of the complexity of definitions and qualifications that are necessary in this discussion. Second, each chapter contains “Resources for Further Study” directing the reader to other works, both articles and books, that cover the content within the previous chapter. Last, Appendix 1 contains an excellent comparison table which places the beliefs of compatibilists (Reformed) and libertarians (Arminian) in two easy to read columns. A wonderful ‘glance at’ resource which stabilizes the ideas of the two major views of free will when they might seem to be getting away from the reader.

Now to the content. 

Christensen presents the classical problem of free will as the launching point for his book -- if the universe operates under divine determination and is governed by meticulous providence, where does that leave human freedom? Can humans still be morally responsible for their actions if everything is predestined or caused by prior events?

He explores this issue by explaining the core ideas behind free will, determinism, and compatibilism (the belief that free choice and determinism can coexist) while using libertarian free will as his primary foil. In the first four chapters in particular, Christensen demonstrates how libertarian free will held by Arminians (the belief that humans can act freely in an indeterministic way) and hard determinism (the view that free will is an illusion because every event is caused by prior events) fail both philosophically as well as, and more importantly, biblically.

The bulk of the book is devoted to a Reformed perspective on free will, known as compatibilism, discussing how the doctrine of God's sovereignty grounds and makes possible human decisions. Christensen offers insights, both philosophical and biblical (Note especially CHS 5-6) on how God's omniscience and omnipotence coexist with human freedom and moral responsibility. He contends that, despite the tension, a robust understanding of compatibilist free will upholds the biblical teaching that God is in full and absolute control of all things and humans are accountable for their actions.

This book is readable yet deep enough to address the difficulties wrapped up in any discussion of God’s sovereignty and human free choice. It is packed with Scripture and thus one is never far away from how Christensen's understanding of this topic is gleaned from God’s Word. It is an excellent place to find affirmation of compatibilism while also spurring, and encouraging further thought on the issues involved.

Soli Deo Gloria