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<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cFreedom\u201d is something we Americans value above all else, practically.\u00a0 But what does it mean?\u00a0 There are actually three generally-recognized kinds of freedom, plus another one that gets less attention but that may be the key to the whole concept.<\/p>\n
That is what I learned from Casey Chalk\u2019s piece in the Federalist<\/em> entitled\u00a0\u00a0Freedom From Morality And Obligations Isn\u2019t \u2018Freedom\u2019.<\/a><\/p>\n He is reviewing a book by the Polish anti-Communist dissident\u00a0Ryszard Legutko,\u00a0The Cunning of Freedom:\u00a0 Saving the Self in an Age of False Idols.<\/a>\u00a0 Legutko explores these different kinds of freedom, showing their nature, their necessary limits, and how they are all going wrong in contemporary society.<\/p>\n I won\u2019t go into the details of what Legutko and Chalk say about that.\u00a0 I urge you to read the review<\/a> and Legutko\u2019s book, which\u2013judging from Amazon\u2019s \u201cLook Inside<\/a>\u201d feature\u2013looks fascinating.<\/p>\n Right now, I\u2019d just like to give you the definitions, along with a few thoughts of my own.<\/p>\n This refers to the absence of coercion.<\/p>\n Societies without any kind of coercion are impossible, since human beings will tend to misuse each other unless they are subject to some level of control.\u00a0 At the same time, excessive coercion, as under totalitarianism in which virtually every aspect of a person\u2019s life is controlled by the state, is tyrannical.<\/p>\n Free societies will employ the least amount of coercion possible.\u00a0 The state might use coercion to prevent individuals from improperly coercing each other.\u00a0 \u00a0This would be a society characterized by a high level of negative freedom.<\/p>\n I would add that the best kind of control is self-control.\u00a0 When human beings have such a moral and religious sensibility that they\u00a0 control themselves, they have little need for the coercive power of the state and thus have greater freedom.<\/p>\n This is\u00a0\u00a0a \u201cset of qualities and conditions needed to achieve important aims.\u201d\u00a0 That is, positive freedom has to do with the conditions necessary for human beings to pursue their goals.<\/p>\n Society has to be peaceful and orderly.\u00a0 A society without law and order has no positive freedom, since individuals will constantly be in danger from others.<\/p>\n Having a free economy requires certain laws that protect property, enforce contracts, support a currency, and so on.\u00a0 The freedom of entrepreneurs, business owners, and other individuals pursuing prosperity depends on these preconditions.<\/p>\n Some societies, of course, cultivate other kinds of positive freedom, adjusting their laws and customs to promote the goals of families or religions or education, or some combination thereof.<\/p>\n \u201cInner freedom is defined as being the author of one\u2019s own actions.\u201d\u00a0 This is probably the definition we think of most.<\/p>\n There are limits to inner freedom, as to the other kinds.\u00a0 There are limits to what we can be and what we can do.\u00a0 But having inner freedom is necessary for individual flourishing.\u00a0 It is opposed by pressures to conformity, collectivism, and refusal to respect the individual.<\/p>\n These different dimensions apply to the various realms of life\u2013to political freedom, economic freedom, etc.\u00a0 To have freedom of speech, we must not be coerced as to what we may or may not say (negative freedom).\u00a0 We also must have access to a forum or a medium to express ourselves (positive freedom).\u00a0 And we must have something that we want to say (inner freedom).\u00a0 To have freedom of religion, we must not be coerced into believing or not believing a particular faith, nor must we be punished for our beliefs (negative freedom).\u00a0 We also need to have churches and other religious institutions, to have access to their teachings, and a climate that allows us to practice our faith (positive freedom).\u00a0 And we must have personal faith, convictions, and conscience (inner freedom).<\/p>\n Legutko believes that each of these kinds of freedom can be distorted and taken to extremes.\u00a0 I would say, for example, that the impulse for inner freedom is currently being exaggerated to the point of people insisting upon the inner freedom to author their own sexual identities, regardless of their bodies.<\/p>\n But Legutko also believes that today\u2019s society, on the whole, suppresses freedom.\u00a0 There is more coercion and thus less negative freedom.\u00a0 The conditions for free actions have been restricted, limiting positive freedom.\u00a0 The peer pressure for conformity, exercised in social media, consumerism, and political correctness limits inner freedom.<\/p>\n He calls for another kind of freedom.<\/p>\n Says Chalk,<\/p>\n Part of the answer to what kind of freedom we should seek to protect and promote must be one that recognizes the transcendent nature of the human self. Moreover, the reason we \u201clong to belong\u201d is because it too is built into our nature. A pure libertarian freedom is wrong because it disables us from being able to unite to collective identities \u2014 family, church, civic society \u2014 that actually\u00a0expand\u00a0<\/em>our freedoms.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This would tie in to the concept of Christian freedom.\u00a0 Whereas the conventional view is that moral rules restrict our freedom, as we have already seen above, morality is necessary for both negative and positive freedom.\u00a0 The Bible teaches that, far from sin being liberating, sin enslaves:\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0\u201cJesus answered them,\u00a0\u201cTruly, truly, I say to you,\u00a0everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0The slave does not remain in the house forever;\u00a0the son remains forever.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed\u201d (John 8:34-36).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n This notion of Transcendent Freedom ties in to what I learned in a reading group I participate in, discussing the new LCMS systematic theology volumes, Confessing the Gospel:\u00a0 A Lutheran Approach to Systematic Theology.<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0In the treatment of \u201cCreation,\u201d William Weinrich writes about how each created being finds fulfillment when it does what God created it to do, so that human beings are free when they fulfill God\u2019s purpose for them.\u00a0 (Note the ties to vocation:\u00a0 this purpose is typically not some grandiose task but the created purposes of growing up, often getting married and having children, making a living, loving and serving one\u2019s neighbor in ordinary life.)\u00a0 Sin violates God\u2019s purpose for human life, so it is enslaving.\u00a0 Being delivered from this sin by the work of Christ and living out one\u2019s faith in vocation is thus liberating.<\/p>\n This Transcendent Freedom ensures Negative, Positive, and Inner Freedom by preventing them from going off course and by grounding the Self in something greater than the Self.<\/p>\nNegative Freedom<\/h3>\n
Positive Freedom<\/h3>\n
Inner Freedom<\/h3>\n
Transcendent Freedom<\/h3>\n