Interpretation Of Augustine's Free Will

Augustine is the famous Roman Empire Christian thinker, one of the important representatives of European Middle Ages Christian Theology and Godfather philosophy. He is also praised as the most significant thinker in West. Free will is a core chapter in his whole theology system which is demonstrated by his life experience. He combined Plato's Good principle with Christian salvation, which is not only opened up a new area for free will but also paved the way for Kant and Hegel's freedom theory about human nature. Therefore, free will is the key point for us to sort out Augustine's theology. In addition, the issue of free will began to draw attention by both Western Philosophy and Christian Theology. As an expert of Christian in Middle Age, Augustine's free will theory created the communication with theology and philosophy as well as the further development of freedom.Augustine's freedom view is mainly embodied in his work On Free Will. This book starts from the concept of sin. Due to God is the creator of everything for its kind and almighty, Augustine has to think about who is responsible for the sin of human beings. He pointed out original sin to illustrate free will theory. Superficially, Augustine is try to find out the origin of sin, but actually, he wants to find real freedom of will that is only the mercy of God's salvation could made human being's free will.This paper attempts to start from the Christian thought of Augustine and combined his soul value and free will. At the same time, it also intends to discover the meaning of free will in Western philosophy world. The book is mainly consists of three parts. Starting from the source of Augustine's free will and its significance so that to arouse the conscious of God's creation and grace which has been omitted by human beings. The objective of God's grace is the second transformations of man, through which man's soul and body are truly united and get the real freedom.