text from *On Free Will* is quite interesting: "If you are not in your own power, then someone must have you in his power who is either more powerful or less powerful than yourself. If he is less powerful the fault is your own and the misery just. But if someone, more powerful than you are, hold you in his power you will not rightly think so rightful an order to be unjust" (3.6.19). 4. The Apostle Paul dealt with such objections, not by defending the justice of God--and especially not by appealing to "free will" --but by pointing out the absurdity of the creature passing judgment on the creator: Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardenth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? for who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? (Romans 9:18-21). There are elements of this in Augustine's approach, but his extreme discomfort with the "core" of the problem is evident--a discomfort which is not evident in the writings of St. Paul. 5. At this point, I beg those staunch defenders of orthodoxy who truly know and love the Lord their God to bear with me. Despite the seeming harshness of my criticism, I assure you that I am not your enemy. And, despite their reputations, neither are Spinoza and Nietzsche, to whom I now turn. 6. Such external powers are not essentially opposed to me. In another context, the same power might work to my advantage. 7. Nietzsche himself calls Spinoza his "precursor" (Portable Nietzsche 92). His discovery of Spinoza seems to have come after the publication of the Human, All To Human. 8. By "will," here, I indicate our desire to do that which is within our power, not a mere whim or wish. 9. It would not be desirable to eliminate such emo...
