LIBERTY-FREEDOM

LIBERTY-FREEDOM. According to Orthodox Holy Tradition, in particular the Church Fathers (q.v.) of the East, liberty or freedom constitutes one of the inalienable characteristics of the human being. For many of the Fathers, e.g., Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor (qq.v.), freedom is in a sense the very definition of the “image of God” (imago Dei, cf. Gen 1:26), which raises Adam and his descendants above the animals. This is in contrast to the theories of Augustine of Hippo (q.v.), which prevailed in the West, at least insofar as Augustine believed that human freedom was in a real way lost after the Fall. One can, however, find a genuine change with regard to the understanding of freedom in the Greek Fathers writing after Origen. The latter’s equation of freedom with choice, and hence the “neutral” quality of the will, underwent correction at the hands, particularly, of Nyssa and Maximus. For Gregory, and more so for Maximus, freedom as originally intended by the Creator and as restored in Christ, means primarily the uninhibited potential for growth into the divine life or likeness. It is the Fall that forces humanity to “choose” between the (usually) unsatisfactory alternatives offered by a world that has been itself “infected” with sin and death (cf. Rom 5). Christ’s victory over these powers and the gift of the Spirit thus constitute the recovery of true human freedom and the renewal of the divine image.