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Examined Doctrine

William of Ockham on Perseverance & eternal security

C. 1287 – 1347 · SCHOLASTIC
NOT LOCATED IN A SOURCENO POSITION FOUND°
NO STANCE — AND WHY

No position located on this map

Searched in the sources read for this figure and not found. A limit of the reading rather than a claim about the figure — a source not yet read could settle it.

THE POSITION

Not located in this pass. Perseverance as a distinct gift is what both Aquinas and Scotus hold and was the common scholastic account, but nothing consulted here states Ockham's, and the position of a school is not evidence about one of its members.

WHY THERE IS NO QUOTATIONNo quotations. He died in 1347 and the Latin is public domain, but the usable English translations are modern and in copyright, so these positions are paraphrased from standard scholarly accounts rather than reproduced. Fewer loci are filled for him than for Scotus, and the reason is recorded per cell rather than hidden: the literature on Ockham is dominated by his logic, metaphysics and politics, and his positions on several loci are not reported cell-by-cell in the standard accounts consulted.

WHAT OTHERS HOLD HERE

No — the genuinely saved will certainly persevereVODDIE BAUCHAM · CALVIN · JONATHAN EDWARDS · THE CHURCH OF ELEVEN22 STATEMENT OF FAITH · CHARLES GRANDISON FINNEY · BILLY GRAHAM · JOSH HOWERTON · TIM KELLER · SECOND LONDON BAPTIST CONFESSION · JOHN MACARTHUR · GAVIN ORTLUND · JOHN OWEN · JUSTIN PETERS · JOHN PIPER · R.C. SPROUL · CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON · WESTMINSTER CONFESSION · GEORGE WHITEFIELD · ZWINGLI
Yes — real apostasy is possibleCHRYSOSTOM · M. HEISER · LUTHER · PHILIP MELANCHTHON · WESLEY
Perseverance is a distinct gift, not given to all the regenerateAQUINAS · AUGUSTINE · JOHN DUNS SCOTUS
See all 30 figures on perseverance & eternal security →

ABOUT THIS FIGURE

Franciscan, the Venerable Inceptor. Nominalist in metaphysics and voluntarist about God's freedom and the human will; spent his last two decades writing against Pope John XXII from the emperor's court in Munich.

READ ACROSS 15 LOCI, NONE QUOTED
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"William of Ockham on Perseverance & eternal security", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/ockham/perseverance (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/ockham/perseverance).

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