Freedom vs. Determinism

Part 5. The Marriage of Athens and Jerusalem

Western Civilization has often been called the child of the marriage between the Faith of Jerusalem and the Reason of Athens.  This is not to suggest that reason is foreign to faith.  Early in the history of the Christian church reason was used in the evangelization of educated pagans and at the Council of Nicea the philosophy of Athens was explicitly employed in clarifying the theology of the Trinity.  Furthermore, faith is not foreign to reason.  In order for reason to produce any useful ontological paradigms, epistemological methods, or ethical guidance it must begin with certain assumptions such as the knowability of the cosmos, the viability of our senses to inform us about the world outside of the mind, and that there are universals among the vast diversity of humanity that allows us to form civil societies.  These assumptions are based on faith whose justification is evinced by the productive paradigms they yield.  It is beyond the scope of this essay to discuss in detail the synergy of Faith and Reason that molded the West over the centuries, the liberties that it produced, or the Science and technology that grew in its fertile intellectual soil.  Instead, I will focus on the issues that pertain to the topic of Freedom within the context of being a Libertarian Christian. [However, you'll find from here on out, that I will be referring to Athens-Jerusalem values, rather than Judeo-Christian values because I think that this is a more accurate representation of the values that are foundational to the West. In referring to Jerusalem I am including both Judaism and Christianity that are central to this city. And when I speak of values I am referring to more than just ethical values, but also to the epistemological and ontological assumptions and structures that were and are so vital to the formation of the West.]

Determinism was a common thread in Greek tragic literature.  The Greek heroes struggled against the Fates and the capricious gods to gain a measure of control over their own destinies.  More often then not, they failed.  Some of the Greek philosophers attempted to convey the fruitlessness of this struggle in a less allegorical language than that of their poets.  Their philosophies ranged from transcendent “world-souls” to which one must yield or to the materialist doctrine of Democritus in which necessity and chance dictates the destinies of men.  There were ambiguities and inconsistencies within these philosophical systems.  The philosophies of the Socratic philosophers (Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle) were more conducive to the idea of personal freedom, however this must be inferred from their philosophies. Their reference to free will was more about making man a moral agent rather than attempting to construct a systematic articulation of how this freedom was ontologically possible. 

The problem of freedom, as we have seen with Materialism is how can immanent humankind who is made of the stuff of nature transcend the chance and necessity of physical laws?  It cannot (unless you find autopoietic emergence convincing).  This is where Jerusalem via Christianity comes to the rescue of the West. 

The Hebrew God is eternal, omnipotent, and omniscient.  He created the universe and all that’s within it ex nihilo, that is, out of nothing.  God, therefore, is essentially different from His Creation; He is Transcendent, creation is immanent.  God is Free of contingency, while Creation is dependent upon its Creator both for its existence and its continuance in being.  Man, while being a part of Creation is unique in that he is made in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1: 26-27) and therefore shares both the Transcendence of his Creator and the immanence of Creation.   It is in this transcendence that man finds the possibility of his freedom.  We all know the rest of the story:  the progenitors of humanity disobeyed God, and “fell” from their original state of blessedness.  An aspect of this Fall was a change in their state of Freedom.  Now, at this point there is disagreement as to the extent of this change.  Some branches of Christianity believe that humanity completely lost its free will with the Fall and only those who are “called” (pre-destined) to be saved will receive the grace necessary for the restoration of free will.  This would be a form of Religious Determinism.  This is not the position of most of Christendom which holds that our free will was attenuated by the Fall, and while we are now naturally inclined to choose that which serves our self interests we are still capable of intuiting that the proper existence man is to be Free.

The potential for Freedom is not the same as being Free.  Remember, I am not talking about Liberty.  Certainly, liberty can be of benefit to the growth of personal freedom, but it is not essential.  I am talking about a personal state of being, one which begins with self-understanding which includes an exploration of one’s thinking, emotions, intuitions, and instincts, and is then to respond or not to respond in accordance with this understanding.  The Temple of Apollo at Delphi summarized this succinctly on which was written the inscription:  Know Thyself.  Self-Knowledge has always been a challenge, but perhaps even more challenging given the vastness of our tech-laden society with its overload of data and interconnected. 

The mind inevitably reaches beyond the self and seeks to know all manner of things and other people.  The Socratic philosophers believed that what the mind (soul/nous) transcends immanent reality and seeks to know the essential nature of things, that is, those things which are universal, and eternal—the archtypes of reality.  Above all we are to seek that which is Good, True and Beautiful and when these are perceived we commit our lives to these realities and this instill within the virtues and a life free of vain pursuits.

In the Athens-Jerusalem Tradition to Know Thyself is to recognize that “our hearts are restless,” as Saint Augustine tells us, “until they find their rest in Thee.”  We intuit that we are incomplete in ourselves and have been made for Him for He is our Good, and True, and Beautiful.  Yet we struggle against our Fallen nature, our individuality with its selfish impulses.  The Natural Law written in our hearts and the Revealed Law that God gave to the Hebrews is a guide back Home leading us to love God and to love our neighbors and ourselves.  Only One could fulfill the Law, the eternally begotten Logos of the Father, who became incarnate of the virgin, Jesus of Nazareth, The Christ.  In accepting and appropriating this reality and grace through Baptism we begin our personal and communal (in the Church) path toward Freedom.  This freedom resides within our  divine image being restored and transfigured by grace.  It is the non-contingency of ex nihilo, the gift of freedom that allows us, like God, to create not out of necessity or chance, but by will.  This is the awesome power grants us, volition, that can be used for good or evil, for charity or for selfishness.  It is the likeness of God, the equality with God, that Lucifer clings to in order to “rule in Hell.”  But for the Christian, Jesus is are archtype:

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2: 5-8)

It is only in “self”-emptying that one becomes free.  It is only when one is free that one can choose to become a bond-servant.  It is only in being a bond-servant that we reach our highest potential as persons