Theology- Freedom Unit

• Wadell: freedom is dangerous; “only freedom as attached to the good”

• Dante: freedom is eternal

• Rahner: freedom is difficult

condition for the possibility of ethics; human ability of self-determination

space to act; opportunity (may I?)

power to act; ability (can I?)

• structural

• self-sin, vice: patterns of sin; vice

we are born with a capacity [of freedom] that can develop into a virtue

• Aristotle: disposition to behave in the right way

• Augustine: perfect love of God

• Aquinas: a good, operative habit

faith, hope, charity

prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance

believing in what you don’t see

trust in divine assistence for obtaining happiness

friendship of the human person for God

relationship with our minds; right reason for things to be done

relationship with other people; render unto each their due

relationship with good that surrounds us; reasonable pursuit of legitimate bodily goods

• the mean between excess & deficiency

deals with our internal state; courage, balance between being a coward & being stupid; remaining steadfast in the face. of fear

Ita Ford, Welles Crowther, Thomas Merton

• Ita Ford: freedom is finding your meaning in life

• Welles Crowther: freedom is built up throughout your life; spontaneity

• Thomas Merton: freedom knowing & discovering yourself & requires sacrifice

when you know the right thing, struggle to do it but end up doing it

when you know the right thing but don’t do it

bad operative habit

“the fruit of being single-hearted”

• what you love determines your decisions

• transcendental: ever-present, unthematic, unfolding, yes or no to God

• Categorical: thematic, concrete choices that embody (without full capturing) the transcendental

• Ground, source, & goal

• Freedom only as ability to say yes to the very source of our freedom

• “What would you do with the last hour of your life?”

• Wears red bandana, went to BC, #19 lax, wanted to be a firefighter, from Nyack, working in twin towers, on 9/11 helped people get out & kept going back up to help more

• Atheism is not real b/c everyone believes in something; same experience can mean 2 different things based on their own beliefs, blind certainty, no such thing as not worshipping, will eat you alive

• Freedom: not a virtue, freedom of choosing-> we get to decide how we see it, attention, awareness, discipline, freedom of choice

• Education: learning how to exercise control over what you think, teaching how to think isn’t the capacity to think, but the choice of what to think about, how to keep from going through your life dead

• Talks about: boring day-in day-out routine of life, work of choosing, I am the center of the universe (ex: he’s in MY way)

True freedom is openness, availability, and a capacity for gifts

Education is at the core of teaching us who we are and discovering our true selves, which opens up to a life of freedom