마르틴 루터의 ‘노예의지론’ 연구 - 에라스무스와의 논쟁을 중심으로-

Abstract

Martin Luther(1483~1516) was the very person that initiated the Reformation against the corruption of Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. He left many books containing his ideas, and his On the Bondage of the Will, in which he had arguments with the humanist Desiderius Erasmus(1467?~1536), is one of his most satisfying theological works and presents a clear contrast between theology and humanism. Erasmus insisted on human free will, which means that human beings can do good and also evil. As a researcher on Aurelius Augustin, however, he maintained that human beings can have will for good deeds and do good by the grace of God, which is "synergism." Resultingly, he recognized human beings' willful abilities and achievements of good deeds, being a humanist. Luther, on the other hand, emphasized basically that human will was the bondage of sin. The only solution to escape from inevitable sin is God's grace. Only through their belief in his grace can human beings have freedom to move toward good. Unlike Erasmus, Luther thus refused to believe that human beings were capable of doing good on their own or in cooperation with God. Luther's On the Bondage of the Will may seem to make light of freedom, responsibility, and good deeds emphasized by Erasmus, but Luther's ideas ended up completing the moral law of humanism with the gospel. Based on the ideas of Luther that sparked the Reformation, today's Protestant Church should be in pursuit of the spirit that the gospel completes morality instead of abolishing it. The spirit of the Reformation involving only faith, only grace, and only the Bible should be understood through Luther's freedom and love that emerged against the backdrop of his arguments with Erasmus.