Skip to content
Examined Doctrine

Basil the Great on Original sin & the human will

C.330 – 379 · GREEK FATHER
READ IN A PRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°
STANCE

Free will substantially intact; God and man cooperate

"Each of us, let us acknowledge it, is the first author of his own vice."
Hexaemeron 2.5

THE POSITION

Hexaemeron 2 is as clear a statement of libertarian responsibility as the fathers offer: evil has no substance of its own, it is the soul's condition when it falls away from good, and each person is the first author of his own vice. Do not look for a cause outside yourself. He adds that virtues exist in us by nature. Nothing here about inherited guilt or bondage.

3 OTHERS HOLD THIS

ChrysostomCharles Grandison FinneyIrenaeus
Will in bondage; needs sovereign grace to be freedAUGUSTINE · VODDIE BAUCHAM · CALVIN · JONATHAN EDWARDS · THE CHURCH OF ELEVEN22 STATEMENT OF FAITH · M. HEISER · JOSH HOWERTON · TIM KELLER · SECOND LONDON BAPTIST CONFESSION · LUTHER · JOHN MACARTHUR · JOHN OWEN · JUSTIN PETERS · JOHN PIPER · R.C. SPROUL · CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON · WESTMINSTER CONFESSION · GEORGE WHITEFIELD · ZWINGLI
Nature wounded but not destroyed; grace perfects itAQUINAS · ATHANASIUS · EPHESUS · WILLIAM OF OCKHAM · JOHN DUNS SCOTUS
Depraved, but prevenient grace restores ability to respondJACOBUS ARMINIUS · BILLY GRAHAM · PHILIP MELANCHTHON · WESLEY
See all 36 figures on original sin & the human will →

ABOUT THIS FIGURE

Bishop of Caesarea and monastic legislator. Supplied the Trinitarian vocabulary the church still uses — one ousia, three hypostases — and argued the Spirit's deity in De Spiritu Sancto while deliberately never calling him God outright.

7 OF 11 POSITIONS QUOTED
Everything Basil the Great holds →
Cite this page

"Basil the Great on Original sin & the human will", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/basil/original-sin (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/basil/original-sin).

How citation works here