Free Will

Free will is the God-given power of the human person to choose — to act or not to act, to choose this or that — and so to shape one's own moral character. It is the basis of all moral responsibility and the condition for merit (CCC 1731).

What Free Will Is

Free will means that human beings are not determined by instinct, environment, or even divine predetermination to choose a particular action. They genuinely deliberate and genuinely choose — and those choices are genuinely their own. God, who is love, created beings capable of freely loving him in return. A love that is coerced is not love (CCC 1730–1733).

Freedom and Responsibility

With free will comes moral responsibility. Because humans genuinely choose, they are genuinely responsible for what they choose. This is the foundation of all moral evaluation: an act is only morally praiseworthy or blameworthy insofar as it was freely chosen. Factors that diminish freedom — ignorance, fear, habit, duress — diminish responsibility (CCC 1734–1737).

Freedom and God

Human freedom is not unlimited. It is most fully itself when ordered toward God — when the person freely chooses what is truly good. Sin does not represent freedom but the abuse of freedom, a choice that ultimately enslaves. "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" (John 8:32; CCC 1738, 1742).

Frequently Asked Questions

How does God's omniscience coexist with free will? God knows all things — including our future free choices — without determining them. His foreknowledge does not compel; he sees our free choices without causing them to be what they are. This is one of the great mysteries of the relationship between divine sovereignty and human freedom (CCC 600).