Augustine: Philosopher of Freedom

“For freedom Christ has set us free,” declares St. Paul to the Galatians. In Augustine: Philosopher of Freedom, Mary T. Clark, R.S.C.J., shows the revolutionary nature of that revelation. With the fullness of the Gospel comes a new opportunity to formulate what it means to be free—and, simultaneously, what it means to be human. Upholding the will, the capacity to freely choose either good or evil, as an essential attribute of the human person, St. Augustine of Hippo shows that freedom, conceptually and experientially, is intelligible only in light of the relationship between creatures and their Creator who freely chose to communicate with them. The most valuable freedom is not the psychological freedom to do what we will, not the physical, social, or political freedom which exempts us from illegitimate interference from others…but the divine freedom described by Augustine of wanting to do what we ought because we love God and take delight in him. Learned yet unpretentious, Augustine: