Libertatea morală. Abordare teologică
Moral Freedom: A Theological Approach

Summary/Abstract: Freedom can only be authentically understood by referring to the stages man has gone through from his creation to the Christian stage of existence. Thus, we first speak of the Edenic stage of human existence and of man’s specific freedom during that period. In Heaven, freedom was the mystery that accompanied Adam, created in the image of God. It was the foundation of the dignity of the human being. Freedom meant participation in the divine life and underlined the kingly dignity with which man was endowed at his origin. After the fall, i.e., after Adam opted out of God’s likeness, freedom was revealed in the form of a degraded free will! In fact, all ethical-philosophical definitions of freedom are concerned with degraded free will, or the faculty of choice between good and evil. Through the gift of freedom, man could choose between the path of life and death even in the fallen state since he remained deiform. In the Adamic stage (from the Fall to the Incarnation), God did not constrain human will or freedom toward good. But it must be borne in mind that original sin, which was an existential failure, brought with it the degradation of primordial freedom and numerous bondages of man to either his own nature or to the world. The stage of restoration in Christ also meant the elevation of freedom from the condition of fallenness/brokenness from God. In Christ, freedom is no longer a choice between good and evil. This is because the sacramentally reborn man immediately and spontaneously follows the good and is beyond choice. The place of free choice is taken by holiness, which is the normal state of the Christian and not merely an ideal.

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