What did Desiderius Erasmus and Martin Luther disagree about concerning free will?

The disagreement between Desiderius Erasmus and Martin Luther regarding free will was a central theological conflict of the Reformation, played out through their respective writings in the 1520s.1

In his 1524 work De libero arbitrio, Erasmus defended the role of human free choice in the process of salvation. He argued that human beings possess the capacity to choose, and he maintained that the long-standing consensus of the church was authoritative in interpreting Scripture. For Erasmus, preserving the concept of free will was essential to his view of Christian life and church unity.1

In response, Luther published De servo arbitrio (1525), which argued for the bondage of the human will. Luther’s position was rooted in the belief that salvation is entirely the result of God’s grace and initiative, rather than human effort or merit. He contended that apart from God’s intervention, human beings are incapable of choosing good or achieving salvation. This debate highlighted a fundamental divide between Erasmus’s humanistic emphasis on human agency and Luther’s insistence on the absolute sovereignty of God in human redemption.12