Suchergebnisse

Having been distorted since modern times, the notions of truth and freedom have been radically juxtaposed in post-modern worldviews, consequently resulting in the loss of key values: the truth is questioned, while freedom is determined and limited by worldly purposes. J. Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) shows that the terms are de facto, theologically important (Theological Hermeneutics); i.e., they can be fully and properly understood from the heart of Christian faith God is the right guarantor of the truth (involving the existence of the objective and judicious reality) and the Embodiment of God's Son, Logos, is the ultimate argument for its attainability and cognizability. When Jesus said: "I am the truth" (John 14 : 6) He convinced that the truth is universal and belongs to God. Thereby, it remains universally binding; it is the appropriate basis of ethos. The truth constitutes the key to interpreting reality and is a superior (independent) criterion for its arrangement (also in the social and political sense). Thus, the task of Christianity and theology is to restore the proper, Christological understanding of truth and freedom for the world, as well as their inseparable, redemptive relationship: "the truth will set you free" (John 8 : 32).

The basis for theological reflection about freedom is the truth about creation of man in the image and likeness of God who is absolutely free. Here is the source of human's yearning for freedom, pursued through endless tension between good and evil. Abstracting in the definition of freedom from the religious foundation inevitably leads to replacing the truth about freedom with the ideology of freedom, the example of which may be modern and contemporary liberal world views, converting themselves into totalitarian social and political systems. Though just in itself, the mere desire for freedom leads humans to nothingness and enslaves them, if it takes the form of lawlessness and Promethean struggle with God. Christianity shows that freedom is not a human prey, but a gift of God, grounded in ontology; the man is free because he was created and saved — he is a son in the Son. Christ is a new Prometheus, who "cast fire on the earth," in the gift of the Holy Spirit — the Spirit of freedom. What constitutes the way to man's freedom is not autonomy, but grace, leading to love.