“The whole day I would hear that we are masters of our own free acts,” he wrote, “and that it is in our power to do good or evil, to have virtues or sins.”[2] From a purely rational point of view, he found these teachings “nearest to truth”[3] – as long as he could avoid reading biblical passages like Romans 9.

Anyone who felt perplexed – even outraged – the first time they read Romans 9 may identify with Thomas Bradwardine, a 14^th-century Archbishop of Canterbury. His age was, like ours, entrenched in Pelagianism, exalting man’s free will and ability to come to God on his own terms. That’s the philosophy he had learned at Oxford, where he “rarely used to hear about grace, except in an ambiguous way.”[1]

“The whole day I would hear that we are masters of our own free acts,” he wrote, “and that it is in our power to do good or evil, to have virtues or sins.”[2] From a purely rational point of view, he found these teachings “nearest to truth”[3] – as long as he could avoid reading biblical passages like Romans 9.

“Every time I listened to the Epistle in church and heard how Paul magnified grace and belittled free will,” he continued, “as is the case in Romans 9, … then grace displeased me, ungrateful as I was.”[4]

At that time, Bradwardine was in his late twenties and nearing the end of his studies in philosophical science. He was a brilliant student, especially in the fields of mathematics and physics, and had already planned to move on to theological studies. Before doing so, however, he had to put to rest these perplexities.

The process included much study of both Scriptures and the writings of earlier theologians. Finally, after much reflection, he began to see Romans 9 in a whole new light. “Even before I became a theological student, the text mentioned came to me as a beam of grace and in a mental representation of the truth I thought I saw from afar how the grace of God precedes all good works in time and in nature.”[5] In other words, everything, including our good works and salvation, proceeds from God as first cause and first mover.

He saw Pelagianism as an innovation that had derailed the church from the actual teachings of Paul. Calling himself “idle and a fool in God’s wisdom” for uncritically following those prevalent views, he was filled with “gratitude to Him who has given [him] this grace as a free gift.”[6]

From then on, he set to demonstrate the error of the Pelagians, and Romans 9:16[7] – the verse he had initially found most troubling – became his strongest source of comfort.

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