Free will in the eyes of Muslims and Christians

The tension between human free will, on the one hand, and divine foreknowledge and sovereignty, on the other, has been addressed differently in different Islamic and Christian traditions. This article examines whether these differences are reflected in how lay Christians and Muslims think about free will, control, blame, and punishment, both when answering abstract questions about God and free will, and when making judgments about concrete situations. We find that despite theological differences among Christian denominations, Christians have similar attitudes in both abstract and concrete contexts, suggesting that lay religious experience is not fully penetrated by theological differences. Muslims differ from Christians: In agreement with the Qur’an, they embrace both free will and divine sovereignty when answering abstract questions, but they deemphasize free will when making concrete judgments. These findings reveal the complexity of the interplay between theological reflection and lay moral and religious cognition, and show that the tension between free will and divine foreknowledge and sovereignty isn’t just a challenge for philosophers and theologians, but is part of lay believers’ religious experience.