The term ‘Divine Will’ traverses the depth-psychology corpus along three principal axes: the theological-metaphysical, the ascetic-practical, and the philosophical-historical. John of Damascus furnishes the most technically precise treatment, distinguishing between the natural will common to all rational beings and the gnomic or dispositional will, which introduces variability through personal deliberation — a distinction with direct consequences for Christology and for the psychology of human freedom. The Philokalia tradition, represented through the Philokalia volumes and the Conferences of John Cassian, approaches Divine Will primarily as a soteriological pole toward which human will must orient and ultimately surrender: the abandonment of self-will in submission to the divine is consistently presented not as destruction of personhood but as its transfiguration. Sri Aurobindo’s corpus relocates the discussion within an evolutionary metaphysics, where Divine Will operates as the supramental power behind cosmic unfolding; the individual’s alignment with it through purified action constitutes the core of integral Yoga. Dihle’s historical survey illuminates the tension between the Biblical emphasis on an inscrutable, sovereign divine will and the Greek philosophical commitment to a rational cosmic order requiring no such spontaneous personal agency. Running across all traditions is the productive tension between determinism and freedom, and between a Divine Will that overwhelms and one that ennobles human volition. The term’s depth-psychological significance lies precisely in its function as the counterpart — and proposed resolution — of the problem of autonomous ego-will.
His holy soul had not opinion (or, disposition) that is to say, no inclination opposed to His divine will, nor aught else contrary to His divine will.
John of Damascus argues that Christ’s human will harbored no dispositional opposition to the divine will, establishing the theological archetype of perfect alignment between human and divine volition.
, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, 2021thesis
He Himself as man subjected in Himself and by Himself His human nature to God and the Father, and became obedient to the Father, thus making Himself the most excellent type and example for us.
This passage presents Christ’s voluntary subjection of his human will to the divine will as the paradigmatic model for human moral and spiritual self-governance.
, Saint John of Damascus Collection, 2016thesis
If our sole purpose is to do God’s will, God Himself will teach us what it is… We become like kings, so that whatever we desire we receive effortlessly and speedily from God.
The Philokalia tradition holds that the complete surrender of personal will to Divine Will paradoxically restores sovereign efficacy to the soul.
, The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995thesis
His will was certainly not different from that of His Father… ‘I came to do your will, for this is what I wish, O my God’ (Ps 39:9).
Cassian establishes the identity of Christ’s will with the Father’s as the exegetical foundation for the teaching that true prayer is conformity to Divine Will rather than petition for its alteration.
, Conferences, 426thesis
There is no need for assuming behind or apart from the entirely rational programming of reality a will of which the impulse or manifestation is unpredictable.
Dihle identifies the foundational contrast between Greek rational cosmology — which requires no spontaneous divine will — and Biblical theism’s insistence on a sovereign, personal, and potentially inscrutable divine agency.
, The Theory of Will in Classical Antiquity, 1982thesis
the faithful totally delivers himself to the divine grace that has been revealed to him by an equally free act of divine will.
Dihle traces how early Christian theology, particularly Irenaeus, re-framed human acceptance of grace as a free response to an equally free act of divine will, establishing a reciprocal voluntarist structure.
, The Theory of Will in Classical Antiquity, 1982thesis
The will of a divine being is frequently spoken of as a hypostasis or person in Gnostic systems, above all where the origin of the created universe is being described.
Dihle documents the Gnostic hypostatization of Divine Will as a cosmogonic person, situating it as the father-principle in the generation of humanity within the Hermetic-Gnostic tradition.
, The Theory of Will in Classical Antiquity, 1982supporting
the person who remains within the bounds of nature is saved if he abandons his own will and fulfils that of God.
The Philokalia presents the fulfilment of Divine Will, through abandonment of self-will, as the minimal condition of salvation available to those living within the natural order.
, The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995supporting
the works of Providence are partly according to the good-will (of God) and partly according to permission.
John of Damascus introduces the crucial distinction between Divine Will as active good-will and as permissive allowance, providing a conceptual framework for the theodicy of suffering.
, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, 2021supporting
The Arabic word islam itself means, literally, ‘surrender [to the Will of God],’ and on the level of popular feeling and belief, this supports such a passive idea as ḳismet, ‘lot, distribution, fate.’
Campbell distinguishes the Islamic conception of submission to Divine Will — which tends toward a passive fatalism at the popular level — from the Western Christian tension between providence and freedom.
, Creative Mythology: The Masks of God, Volume IV, 1968supporting
The God of the Old Testament is present and perceptible only in his commandments and orders, in the utterances of his will. His thought is far beyond.
Dihle argues that in the Hebrew Biblical tradition, Divine Will is disclosed exclusively through commandment and historical deed, not through rational transparency to human intellect.
, The Theory of Will in Classical Antiquity, 1982supporting
God’s will and work and delight in him and the spiritual use of his perfection and fulfilment. Our works will then be divine and done divinely.
Aurobindo presents the abolition of ego as the condition under which individual action becomes transparent to and expressive of Divine Will, transforming all works into vehicles of the supramental.
, The Synthesis of Yoga, 1948supporting
a purity of divine being, a motive of divine will-power guided by divine knowledge of which his perfected nature will be the engine, yantra.
Aurobindo articulates the goal of integral Yoga as the perfected nature becoming a pure instrument (yantra) of divine will-power, moving beyond personal moral standards.
, The Synthesis of Yoga, 1948supporting
By a single infinitely powerful act of will God in His goodness will gather all together, angels and men, the good and the evil.
This passage presents Divine Will as an eschatological act of gathering whose scope is universal, though participation in the divine life varies according to each being’s receptive capacity.
, The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995supporting
whatever desires still trouble his being, he must, if he accepts the high aim of Yoga, put them away from him into the hands of the Lord within us. The supreme Power will deal with them for the good of the sadhaka.
Aurobindo recommends the surrender of personal desire to the indwelling Divine Will as the operative practice by which the yogin’s nature is progressively purified.
, The Synthesis of Yoga, 1948supporting
the humble man always despises his individual will as an error, and, making his petitions to the Lord in unswerving faith, learns what he should do.
Climacus, as interpreted by Sinkewicz, frames the renunciation of individual will as constitutive of the hesychast’s discernment, making submission to Divine Will the structural condition of spiritual knowledge.
, Evagrius of Pontus: The Greek Ascetic Corpus, 2003supporting
He also tells us that it is God who makes our souls ready and gives them help for every good work and that He works in us those things which please Him.
Cassian advances the doctrine that Divine Will operates not merely as an external command but as an interior energy working in the soul to produce what is pleasing to God.
, Conferences, 426supporting
the Providence of God is beyond our ken and comprehension, while our reasonings and actions and the future are revealed to His eyes alone.
John of Damascus establishes Divine Will’s inscrutable sovereignty as the hermeneutical principle governing the acceptance of Providence, distinguishing it sharply from the domain of human free-will.
, Saint John of Damascus Collection, 2016supporting
the belief that both divine predetermination and human responsibility have to be accepted is common ground in the writings of the apostolic period.
Dihle identifies the foundational theological antinomy of the apostolic period: divine predetermination and human moral responsibility are held simultaneously without rational resolution.
, The Theory of Will in Classical Antiquity, 1982supporting
It was inconceivable to the early churchmen that God could be anything but omniscient; but if He was omniscient, then He knew what sins a man would commit in the future, which meant that sin, salvation and damnation were already predestined.
Greene examines how the theological commitment to divine omniscience generates the paradox of predestination, forcing Christian thinkers to elaborate a concept of Providence that distinguishes Divine Will from fate.
, The Astrology of Fate, 1984supporting
The way towards salvation or immortality is described as ‘the ability to know and to wish and to hope is a straight road’.
Dihle traces the Hermetic tradition’s insistence that a human act of will initiates the cognitive ascent toward the divine, positioning human voluntarity as the precondition for receiving divine illumination.
, The Theory of Will in Classical Antiquity, 1982aside
he begins to long to do God’s will. He no longer has any doubts about God’s help, but ‘casts his burden upon the Lord’.
The Philokalia presents the longing to fulfill Divine Will as a spiritual developmental achievement, arising from deepened fear of God and issuing in confident abandonment to divine providence.
, The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995aside
Egoism renounced, the nature purified, action will come from the soul’s dictates, from the depths or the heights of the spirit.
Aurobindo implies that purified action aligned with divine will emerges naturally once ego-constructions are dissolved and the soul’s inner law is freed to govern conduct.
, The Synthesis of Yoga, 1948aside