In autumn 1525, Luther wrote The Bondage of the Will as a response to humanist and theologian Erasmus of Rotterdam, who had criticized Luthers teachings in the diatribe On Free Will. Luthers argument on the matter of the bound and free will poses a challenge and an invitation for constructive contemporary theology. This volume is excerpted from The Annotated Luther series, Volume 2. Each volume in the series contains annotations, illustrations, and notes to help shed light on Luthers context and to interpret his writings for today.

Kirsi I. Stjerna is First Lutheran, Los Angeles/Southwest California Synod Professor of Lutheran History and Theology, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary of California Lutheran University, Berkeley, a Core Doctoral Faculty member at Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, and a Docent in Helsinki University, Finland. She has authored several books, including Women and the Reformation and Luther, The Bible and the Jewish People (with Brooks Schramm), and Lutheran Theology: A Grammar of Faith. She is one of three general editors of the six-volume The Annotated Luther (Fortress Press).