Free will and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer of the (Anglican) Church of England

[On the subject of free will, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the prayer book of the (Anglican) Church of England says that since Adam ate the apple in the Garden of Eden, and was expelled, we don’t have free will, and are unable to have faith without the help of God. Same with Faust.

It helps explain how it is that God is all-powerful and knows everything and knows our outcome, yet all is not lost, even if it seems your salvation is pre-determined; it’s just already known, but by God, not you. Humans can still aspire to something, such as a good will, a right spirit that God can make use of. Of Free Will is one of 39 statements of faith of the Church of England. Other denominations have their own ideas about free will. Catholicism says that humans have the ability to chose to do good.]

X. Of Free Will.
THE condition of man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to faith and calling upon God. Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good will, and working with us when we have that good will.

https://www.anglican.ca/about/beliefs/39-articles/

[In seventeenth Faust stories from Protestant regions, God is absent. Presumably He knows how things turn out, even if Faust doesn’t. Eighteenth century Goethe’s Faust has God debating Faust’s progress. Faust has free will, but Goethe was not Catholic, just Enlightened. Goethe was a major figure in the Enlightenment and raised Lutheran, described himself as ‘non-Christian.’]

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