Who is free today? How do we
define freedom? Does my freedom end where someone else’s begins? Should there
be freedom? Are we free? These are some of the questions posed by many…not
today, but since the beginning of man’s history. How do we understand freedom
within Orthodoxy?
‘To be “called to freedom” (Gal.
5:13) is, for St. Paul, the greatest privilege of Christians. It implies,
however, that one is “led by the Spirit” (Gal. 5:18). The idea that the Spirit
and freedom do not contradict, but presuppose each other, is connected with the
notion of “participation” in God’s life…This connection is especially evident
in Greek patristic literature…
…Freedom is, for Gregory of Nyssa
and Maximus the Confessor, the essential element of man’s likeness to God.
Freedom, i.e. “to be undetermined,” is the most basic of divine attributes; but man possesses it by “participation.”
However, his revolt against God deprived him of freedom, made him a slave to
the “flesh,” i.e. to the determinism of created existence. Man became a part of
this world, subject to cosmic laws
and especially to corruption, death and sin.’[1]
[1]
Meyendorff, John, Living Tradition, (Crestwood,
St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1978), pp. 39-40.
Yes ths is just how it feels to me - the theology matches experience (at least, mine!)
ReplyDeletealthough it is the hardest thing for us to accept - that true freedom lies in complete surrender
ReplyDelete