A Weblog Dedicated to the Discussion of the Christian Faith and 21st Century Life

A Weblog Dedicated to the Discussion of the Christian Faith and 21st Century Life
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I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe, –that unless I believed, I should not understand.-- St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109)

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Quote of the Day 2009.6: The Christian Idea of Freedom

"In Liberalism, freedom is defined negatively as: "freedom from constraint." Individuals must be free to do whatever they want. Whether I can do whatever I want is the ultimate test of whether or not I am free."

"This is very different from the Christian idea of freedom as the will being drawn toward the good. For Christians, being free means doing God's will and thus fulfilling our true nature as His creatures. As Pope John Paul II put it, in accordance with the mainstream of the Christian tradition,"

"Acting is morally good when the choices of freedom are in conformity with man's true good and thus express the voluntary ordering of the person towards his ultimate end: God himself, the supreme good in whom man finds his full and perfect happiness." (Veritatis Splendour, 72)

"To obey the Word of God is to do that for which we were created and to find joy. But to go against the Word of God is to become enslaved to our appetites and to lose our freedom."

"What I want to argue here is that the liberal notion of freedom is self-contradictory. Louis Groarke's article "What is Freedom? Why Christianity and Theoretical Liberalism Cannot Be Reconciled" (Heythrop Journal, XLVII (2006), pp. 257-74) is one of the best statements of why this is so."

"Groarke argues that in liberalism, freedom is the first principle, the highest good. Freedom is defined as "freedom from constraint" meaning that an individual is free when he or she is able to choose whatever he or she wants without being coerced by anyone or anything."

"As popularly stated, liberalism has two components: 1) the idea that freedom is non-interference and 2) the no-harm rule...."

You can read Craig Carter's entire post, "How Secular Liberalism is Incoherent and Nihilistic," here.

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