The concept of free will is encapsulated by the Greek term autexousion, which is translated as something like self-determination and the sovereign power an entity has over its own actions. This faculty is not only a capability for decision-making, but an ontological reality - one that is essential to the creation of man in the image of God.
The early Church Fathers, in particularly the Apologists such as Saint Justin Martyr and Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, said that the dignity of man is predicated on our status as a free agent, capable of voluntary obedience rather than compelled submission.
Saint John of Damascus made the link between reason and Free Will; rationality implies the mastery of one's actions. While inanimate objects and irrational creatures are acted upon by nature and physical laws, rational beings lead nature rather than being led by it.
Reason is granted to humanity for the specific purpose of deliberation, which renders the individual the author of their own works. Consequently, Free Will is the power of a soul to direct itself, through deliberate choice, towards whatever it decides. Without this self-determining power, the faculty of deliberation and discernment would be superfluous, and man could not be a subject of praise or blame.
The Maximian Synthesis of the Will
The most rigorous theological definition of volition was formulated by Saint Maximus the Confessor during the seventh-century Monothelite controversy. Saint Maximus argued that the will is a property of nature rather than of the person (hypostasis), necessitating the distinction between the natural will and the gnomic will.
The natural will (thelema physikon) is the desire of a rational nature for our own being, and well-being. It functions as a master faculty, a rational desire, that longs for what is natural and appropriate. This movement is teleological, manifesting the soul's native orientation toward our Creator and the Good.
This is not a constraint, but the essential dynamism of human flourishing. In contrast, the gnomic will (thelema gnomikon) is not a faculty of nature but a mode or tropos of willing. It arises from the particular way a person exercises their natural will under conditions of ignorance and separation from God.
The gnomic will involves a process of inquiry, hesitation, deliberation, and the necessity of choosing between opposing possibilities. This mode of willing is a symptom of imperfection and limitation, as a being that perfectly knows the Good moves toward it spontaneously without the need for deliberative struggle.
This distinction is pivotal. To preserve the integrity of the Incarnation, it is affirmed that Jesus Christ possessed a natural human will, for without it He would not have assumed a complete human nature. However, Christ did not possess a gnomic will. Because His human nature was united hypostatically with the Divine Logos, He was not subject to ignorance, doubt, or inner conflict regarding the Good. His human will was perfectly aligned with the Divine will, choosing the good naturally and freely without the vacillation characteristic of fallen humanity.
Synergy and the Operation of Grace
The Orthodox understanding of salvation is grounded in the concept of synergeia (synergy), which denotes the cooperation between Divine Grace and human freedom.
This soteriological model rejects both Pelagianism, which asserts human self-sufficiency, and Monergism, which attributes salvation solely to Divine action without human consent. God initiates all good and provides the uncreated energy necessary for salvation, but the human person must freely assent to this operation.
Saint John Chrysostom taught that God never draws anyone by force or violence; the human person must open the door to the Holy Spirit. This interaction is not a division of labor where God performs a percentage and man performs the rest, but an interpenetration where the human will is energised and sustained by Grace.
Theosis, or deification, is the goal of this synergistic process. It is the participation of the human person in the life of God through His uncreated energies. As the believer cooperates with God through asceticism, prayer, and the sacraments, the gnomic will is healed. The fragmentation of the will is overcome, and the individual moves from a state of deliberation and choice to a state of fixedness in the Good.
Providence, Foreknowledge, and Predestination
The reality of Free Will necessitates a specific understanding of Divine Providence. Saint John of Damascus elucidates the distinction between prescience (foreknowledge) and predetermination (predestination).
God foreknows all things, including the free choices of rational creatures, but He does not predetermine those things that are within human power. Predestination is the work of the Divine command based on foreknowledge; God predestines those whom He foreknows will freely cooperate with His Grace.
To reconcile the Divine will with human freedom, Saint John of Damascus distinguishes between God's antecedent will and His consequent will. The antecedent will is God's primary desire that all be saved and come to His Kingdom, springing from His inherent goodness.
The consequent will is God's permission, which responds to human choices. It allows for the chastisement or desertion of the sinner, not because God desires their destruction, but as a just concession to their free will. Thus, the origin of evil and the tragedy of damnation reside in the misuse of creaturely freedom, not in the Divine decree.
The trajectory of human freedom is teleological, moving from the potential for likeness to God to its actualisation. In the eschaton, the freedom of the saints is perfected. This does not imply the removal of free will but its restoration to the state of the natural will, which is fixed on God.
The need for the gnomic will - the deliberative struggle between options - ceases when the soul encounters the ultimate Truth.
In this glorified state, the human person becomes by grace what God is by nature. The variance of individual wills is reconciled as they are united with the Divine will, achieving a stability that transcends the mutability of the fallen world.
Freedom is thus revealed not as the eternal capacity to rebel, but as the unhindered power to love God without deviation. Through the Incarnation of the Logos, human nature is liberated from the necessity of death and the confusion of Sin, allowing the free will to fulfill its original vocation as the vessel of Divine communion.