Willing to Believe: The Controversy Over Free Will, by R. C. Sproul

Willing to Believe is a good introduction to the history and nature of the debate on the Protestant doctrine of man’s total depravity and God’s effectual grace. It is a survey of how theologians have explained and thought about the relationship between the sinfulness of man and his ability to come to Christ in faith. Sproul seeks to answer the question of whether God is the author only of justification or of both justification and faith. The book examines the theological understandings of Pelagius, Augustine, the Semi-Pelagians, Martin Luther, John Calvin, James Arminius, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, and Lewis Sperry Chafer concerning this issue.

Here is a brief summary of the theologians surveyed in the book:

1. Pelagius believed that man was inherently able to live according to God’s law.
2. Augustine said that man is incapable of living for God apart from God's grace. He prayed, asking God, "demand whatever you will, only supply what you demand."
3. The Semi-Pelagians believed that while man was still sinful, he was able to cooperate with God’s grace.
4. Martin Luther believed that man was in bondage to sin and could only be rescued from this bondage by God’s grace.
5. John Calvin sided with Luther and Augustine and believed that man was a voluntary slave that could not choose Christ in and of himself apart from God’s grace.
6. James Arminius believed that while man was sinful, he was free to believe. Arminius believed that God would not ask of man what man could not do.
7. Jonathan Edwards sided with Calvin and added that man always does what he most desires.
8. Charles Finney was essentially a Pelagian who believed a different gospel (that Christ’s death was not a work of atonement, but that Christ died in order to inspire us to live for God).
9. Lewis Sperry Chaffer believed that mankind was capable of belief and while it was God’s work the final act of conversion was an act of an individual’s will.

For anyone who does not understand this important debate, this would be the first book I recommended.