Skip to content

Further Reading

Sorted by difficulty. [popular] assumes no training; [academic] assumes Greek and footnotes. Annotations name weaknesses too.

Tier 1 — Start here

  • Leighton Flowers, The Potter's Promise (2014). [popular] The most accessible entry point and the closest thing to a manifesto; strong on John 6, Romans 9, and Ephesians 1, but popular-level and sometimes overstates.
  • Jerry Walls and Joseph Dongell, Why I Am Not a Calvinist (IVP, 2004). [semi-popular] The best single book for a thoughtful lay reader: philosophical, exegetical, irenic. Dongell's exegetical chapters are the strongest part.
  • Roger Olson, Against Calvinism (Zondervan, 2011). [semi-popular] A fair-minded systematic critique by a historian of theology; strong on the tradition, lighter on close exegesis.
  • Kevin Thompson, Beyond the Fundamentals (video series). [popular] His method — inductive reading, the three-pronged approach, the "8 A's" — is more valuable than any episode. The historical thesis needs checking against Wilson and his reviewers.
  • Dave Hunt, What Love Is This? (2002). [popular] The book that introduced a generation to the debate. Read it for passion, not scholarship: some historical claims are unreliable and the tone is harsh.
  • Ken Wilson, The Foundation of Augustinian-Calvinism (2019). [popular] A short version of the academic thesis that Augustine's later doctrine of grace was a departure from the earlier tradition.

Tier 2 — Intermediate

  • Robert Shank, Life in the Son (1961) and Elect in the Son (1970). [semi-popular] Classic studies on perseverance and election; the warning texts are handled better here than almost anywhere else.
  • I. Howard Marshall, Kept by the Power of God (1969). [academic] A careful study of perseverance and falling away, irenic and honest about the texts that resist his case.
  • Robert Picirilli, Grace, Faith, Free Will (2002). [semi-popular] The best single volume for classical Arminianism on its own terms; the chapter on faith and works is especially useful.
  • John Goodwin, Redemption Redeemed (1651). [historical] The great seventeenth-century English Arminian treatise: rigorous, learned, long. Read selections; the extent of the atonement is the heart.
  • Andrew Fuller, The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation (1785). [historical] The book that recovered duty faith and the free offer for Particular Baptists — a Calvinist solving a Calvinist problem.
  • James Arminius, Works, 3 vols., trans. James Nichols. [primary source] Read the Declaration of Sentiments and the disputations on predestination. Arminius is an exegete wrestling with Romans 9, not a "man-centered" caricature.
  • John Wesley, "Free Grace" (1739) and Predestination Calmly Considered (1752). [primary source] The pastoral heart of the Wesleyan objection; the rhetoric is eighteenth-century and occasionally sharp.
  • Clark Pinnock, ed., The Grace of God, the Will of Man (1989); The Flame of Love (1996). [semi-popular] Pinnock is an open theist, which the casebook does not require; read for the vision of God's love, with the metaphysics in view.
  • Gregory Boyd, Satan and the Problem of Evil (2001). [academic] Not soteriology, but the fullest case that a good God would not decree evil; not a substitute for exegesis of Romans 9.
  • David L. Allen, The Extent of the Atonement (2016). [academic] A massive historical and biblical survey; strong on the patristic and Reformation sources, too long to read straight through.
  • Edward Fisher, The Marrow of Modern Divinity (1645). [primary source] The book at the center of the Marrow Controversy: a Reformed devotional teaching a free offer that later Calvinism found embarrassing.

Tier 3 — Technical

  • Brian Abasciano, Paul's Use of the Old Testament in Romans 9:1–9 (2005) and Romans 9:10–18 (2011). [academic] The most detailed defense of the corporate reading of Romans 9, with close attention to the Old Testament quotations. Dense; not for beginners.
  • Ken Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will" (Mohr Siebeck, 2018). [academic] The technical version of the historical thesis. Contested by reviewers; treat it as a serious argument, not a consensus.

The Reformed side — for steel-manning

Read two before you debate; you cannot refute a caricature.

  • John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559), ed. McNeill, trans. Battles. [primary source] Books II–III on sin, grace, and predestination: pastoral, exegetical, and more willing to call the decree "dreadful" than modern defenders.
  • John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (1647). [historical] The classic defense of definite atonement: rigorous, exhausting, and the place to press "sufficient for all."
  • B. B. Warfield, The Plan of Salvation (1915). [semi-popular] Clear essays on predestination; a good entry to the Princeton synthesis.
  • John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied (1955). [semi-popular] Short, clear, confessional: the best single statement of the Reformed ordo salutis.
  • J. I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (1961). [popular] The best popular treatment of decree and evangelism; honest about the mystery and fair to Arminians.
  • R. C. Sproul, Chosen by God (1986). [popular] Lucid and confident; its treatment of Arminianism is sometimes a caricature, and it is surer than the confessions.
  • John Piper, The Justification of God (1983; 2nd ed. 1993). [academic] The most serious exegetical defense of the Reformed reading of Romans 9; you must answer this book, not a blog post.
  • John Piper, Does God Desire All to Be Saved? (2013). [popular] The two-wills defense in brief; read it beside the 1948 OPC report to see how much has to be qualified.
  • James R. White, The Potter's Freedom (2000). [popular] A sharp debate handbook written against Geisler; useful for seeing the arguments you will face.
  • Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (1994; 2nd ed. 2020). [semi-popular] Clear and comprehensive; check what the system actually says before criticizing it.
  • Thomas Schreiner, Romans (BECNT, 1998). [academic] The best conservative Reformed commentary on Romans, and the place to test the corporate reading against a real scholar.
  • G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, eds., Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (2007). [academic] For the quotations in Romans 9 and John 6; indispensable for checking the Old Testament context.

How to read an opponent

Read the strongest book on the other side first, as if its author were right. Mark the places you cannot answer; those are your real work.

See also

Additions for the second edition: primary sources, lexicons, and reviews

Patristic and historical sources

  • Justin Martyr, First Apology 43; Dialogue with Trypho — the clearest early statement of free will and responsibility. Read in the Ante-Nicene Fathers translation (ccel.org).
  • Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.18-19; 4.37-39 — recapitulation and human freedom. The best single patristic counter-witness to determinism.
  • Origen, De Principiis 3.1 — the most sustained early treatment of free will; read with caution because of Origen's later condemnation.
  • John Chrysostom, Homilies on John 45-47 — a major Greek father on John 6:44. Preached within living memory of Augustine.
  • John Cassian, Conferences 13 — the semi-Pelagian alternative. Read as evidence of a debate, not as the church's settled view (Cassian was condemned in part).
  • Vincent of Lérins, Commonitorium 2 — the criterion "everywhere, always, by all." Useful against novelty claims of every kind.
  • Second Council of Orange (529) — the canons and conclusion; text at andrews.edu and newadvent.org. The key Western settlement against foreordination to evil.
  • Augustine, Ad Simplicianum; De correptione et gratia; De praedestinatione sanctorum; De dono perseverantiae — the mature doctrine in its own words.
  • Ken Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will" (Mohr Siebeck, 2018) — the scholarly thesis; read the reviews alongside it.
  • Gerald Bonner, Freedom and Necessity (2007) — a balanced Augustinian scholar on grace and freedom.
  • Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo (rev. ed., 2000) — the standard biography; best on the Manichaean years and the Donatist coercion.

Greek and Hebrew tools

  • BDAG (3rd ed.) — the standard New Testament lexicon; use it for ranges, not verdicts.
  • Thayer — older but useful for the tassō entry; note its theological glosses.
  • LSJ — the classical range, especially for helkō and tassō.
  • Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics (1996) — middle voice, divine passive, and infinitives.
  • A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament (1914) — the classic; still useful on syntax.
  • BDF and Moulton-Howard-Turner — the standard reference grammars.
  • HALOT and BDB; Joüon-Muraoka, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew — for Exodus 9:16 and the Hebrew background of "know."

Commentaries on the new texts

  • C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans (ICC) and John Murray, Romans (NICNT) — Romans 5 from both sides.
  • Gordon Fee, 1 Corinthians (NICNT) and Anthony Thiselton, 1 Corinthians (NIGTC) — 1 Corinthians 1:26-31.
  • Philip Towner, The Letters to Timothy and Titus (NICNT) — 2 Timothy 1:9.
  • G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (NIGTC) and David Aune, Revelation (WBC) — Revelation 13:8 and the book of life.
  • Craig Keener, Acts: An Exegetical Commentary — Acts 16:14 and 18:10.
  • D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John (Pillar) — John 8, 17.