Francis Berger
  • Blog
  • My Work

The Right and Wrong Paths of Freedom

11/11/2021

2 Comments

 
Lady Mermaid, a regular reader of this blog, recently posted a lucid summary of freedom and how it relates to the further development of Christian consciousness. I have decided that it deserves a post of its own (slight editing and bold added):

Many traditionalists/reactionaries rightfully argue that the emphasis on individual freedom led to the godless world of today. While individual liberty did lead to the downfall of the West, I don't believe that this downfall was inevitable.

The quote from Berdyaev about this increased freedom leading to God or the devil is the most sobering aspect of this post.

If the Enlightenment had been centered on how to use individual liberty to grow in Christ, it could have a been a great development in man's consciousness.

​
Unfortunately, the majority of Enlightenment thinkers used their new freedom to reject God. Instead of mankind embarking to better things, the post Enlightenment man fell into the horrors of Communism, Nazism, Facism, scientism, rationalism, "public health", and the security state.

While man has certainly abused the freedoms he has gained over the last two centuries, I agree w/ Berdyaev that God did want us to be able to truly decide to follow Him rather than simply out of habit or tradition. This is why attempts to restore the former traditional paths during the 20th century failed whether it was a Catholic Republic of Ireland or Franco's Post WWII Spain. Modern man is fundamentally different than the medieval or Renaissance man.

I'm not dismissing the spirituality of the past by any means. It's simply that today it has be an individual choice rather than taken for granted.

There is a great price for this freedom if we continue on the wrong path, but there are great rewards if we freely choose Christ.
2 Comments
lea
11/12/2021 08:48:06

I agree with all of this except there is no freedom at all at the end of this particular tunnel. Freedom itself is a state of being that should not be bought or sold, or bargained over. In the spiritual sense, it is a choice. Whenever either aspect of the word gets deeply manipulated it becomes difficult to use in any assesment of the state of things. As descriptions and denominations go, it is FAR more important that people get a sense of the spiritual again, rather then which flavour it takes shape in. As long as they are in the camp of life and creativity and not buying into burning down everything. THAT is the key, and will be an increasingly difficult thing to convince people of in the hard times ahead. Its not a trivial task because droves of people have bought into transhumanism as solace for their current suffering. 'This will fix it'. That is just one of the many narratives we need to disprove, but definitely one of the most important ones.

As far as historical context goes, we took a philosophical and epistemological wrong turn somewhere in the last few centuries and it all snowballed from there, but i have not managed to pinpoint where exactly yet. Was it Descartes himself or something that followed later? Moving away from empiricism into model based science could be the second step, then information theory explaining 'everything' and leading us into a binary state (of thinking) perhaps? Gross simplifications ofcourse but all have a kernel of truth at least. Alas, i digress.

Reply
Francis Berger
11/12/2021 09:20:48

@ lea - I agree about the importance of people getting back to the spiritual, but the flavor does matter. Most organized forms of Christianity have chosen to side with the totalitarians - so going to church and adopting a humble, obedient attitude to spirituality is likely to do more harm than good.

As to your second thought, I'm not sure it's even possible to pinpoint the wrong turn. I've been trying to pinpoint it for years, but with no success. I think the wrong turn was more of a process - one spanning several generations, sometime in the eighteenth century, but its roots certainly stretch back to earlier thinkers.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Blog and Comments

    Blog posts tend to be spontaneous, unpolished, first draft entries ranging from the insightful and periodically profound to the poorly-argued and occasionally disparaging.
     

    Comments are moderated. Anonymous comments are never published (please use your name or a pseudonym). 

    Emails welcome:

    f er en c ber g er (at) h otm   ail (dot) co m
    Blogs/Sites I Read
    Bruce Charlton's Notions
    Meeting the Masters
    From The Narrow Desert
    Synlogos ✞ Aggregator
    New World Island  
    New World Island YouTube
    ​Steeple Tea
    Berdyaev.com
    Adam Piggott
    Fourth Gospel Blog
    The Orthosphere
    Junior Ganymede

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012

    Picture
    A free PDF is also available in My Work. 
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.