Paul was the first to introduce the idea of free will that became a foundational problem for philosophers. In his “Letter to the Romans,” Paul recognizes a conflict within himself. He wants to obey the law of God, but he still commits actions against the law: “I do not understand my own actions…for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (65). In this statement, Paul conceptualizes the idea of the original sin, that humans are innately sinful. Paul suggests that the only thing that can save people is not their own Will, which is powerless to win this conflict, but through the salvation of Christ.

In Chapter 9, Arendt turns to Epictetus, a Greek Stoic philosopher. Epictetus and Paul have many similarities in their philosophies, including their study of the Will and the mind. Unlike Paul, Epictetus suggests that humans have both the will to obey or disobey rather than an inevitable predilection for sin. Epictetus believed that all people want to be happy and that it is the work of philosophy to help find a way toward happiness. He viewed the Will as both good and evil. Epictetus saw a retreat into the Will as a way to achieve happiness—to separate the self entirely from worldly matters.

Arendt is critical of this radical withdrawal from the world. She views the primacy of thought as a problematic temptation for many philosophers. However, she admires Epictetus for equating the Will with a pure form of freedom—a concept that she carries into her own philosophical work.

Arendt says that Augustine was the first Christian philosopher: While he was a Christian, his conversion was a philosophical conversion. Both Epictetus and Augustine saw the world as torn. While Epictetus believed that humans should overcome this division and master the Will, Augustine proposed that the inevitable conflict requires grace and forgiveness. Augustine’s starting point was the Stoic quest for happiness. Arendt explains that a priority of happiness marked Augustine’s era: “We find this pragmatic concern for private happiness throughout the Middle Ages; it underlies the hope for eternal salvation and the fear of eternal damnation and clarifies many otherwise abstruse speculations” (85). A focus on happiness centers the self and individual experience over plurality.

Arendt considers Augustine an original thinker. The free choice of the Will occurs frequently in Augustine’s works. At first, Augustine did not believe that humans should have access to free will because it would remove them from sin. Later, after reading Paul’s “Letter to the Romans,” Augustine determines that there are two sides to the Will: The carnal and the spiritual. Grace and forgiveness are the bridges that will repair the division between the two.