Free Will, Moral Responsibility, and Reformed Theology - Analytic ...

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Paul L. Manata © 2011
some of the problems it faces. This view is becoming increasingly popular, held to
by Reformed theologians Andreas Beck, Richard Muller, Willem van Asselt, and
Antonie Vos, among others. A recent book which defends the above notion was
published in the “Texts and Studies in Reformation and Post-­‐Reformation
Thought” series, 56 which was positively blurbed by Westminster Seminary
professor Carl Trueman. More recently, the esteemed Richard Muller gave a
lecture at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where he put forth this view, and his
lecture was linked to without any commentary either way by Westminster
California professor R. Scott Clark’s weblog. Another Reformed theologian, Kim
Riddlebarger, linked to the Muller lecture at his weblog—again, without any
critical comment—and called it “very helpful.” Interestingly, one can also see this
view championed on the Internet by those who identify with the Barthian wing of
Reformed theology. So the view seems to be picking up steam.
Since this position conflicts with my claim that Reformed theology is
deterministic and that the freedom we have is best classified as a type of
compatibilist freedom, what follows will be more critical than descriptive. This
will also be the most difficult part of the paper, but maybe the most profitable for
those who work through it. I also press the point that what follows is
introductory, and so is not meant to be a sustained, rigorous, and comprehensive
critique. Having duly protected myself with the “it wasn’t meant to be a rigorous
critique” out, I will now set forth one of the main ideas of this view.
E.2 Synchronic contingency
The idea is that Reformed scholasticism owes much to Duns Scotus’ alleged
middle way between determinism and indeterminism, the idea of ‘synchronic
56 Reformed Thought on Freedom: The Concept of Free Choice in Early Modern
Reformed Theology, ed. Willem J. van Asselt et al. (Baker Academic, 2010).