The Experiencing of Consciousness as Freedom

Abstract

It is characteristic of sacred writings that they address man as a moral agent, as one who must use criteria with discernment in order to achieve himself as a spiritual being. Yet predictably in the diverse forms of spirituality that have emerged in Western history, different emphases have been placed upon the notion of discernment. In what can be regarded as the classical, preponderantly philosophical, religious theory, morality is a derivative of man’s creaturely status. The divine order decreed by his King, Lord or “Architect” constitutes a law which serves as the criterion for man’s reason and morals. Thus in the various kinds of natural law theory, whether Stoic, Thomistic or Lockean, the moral life as a discernment of nature seems relatively clear. Virtue, as it was for Socrates, comes close to being just a matter of knowledge. Choice is logically consequent upon that weighing of alternatives which John Buridan parodied in his celebrated example of a donkey dying between two bales of hay. The stage is set for the bitter theological controversy between the protagonists of divine omnipotence and those of human freedom.