Freedom - a gift of the Spirit according to Yves Congar

Abstract

The question of human liberty is one of the principle themes of any anthropology. In this respect, the desire Congar had to elaborate on the theme of liberty led him to draw from the two main anthropologies which were most familiar to him, namely that of the Latin West and that of the Greek East. Both have very concrete contributions to make. And even though at times they may seem to be marred by incongruous positions, they need not be antagonised. In a lecture given in 1952, : Congar sought to analyse "the kind of liberty Christianity brings to man in virtue of the sense of the dignity of the human person which it arouses and fosters." In it he explained how basic the concept of liberty is to Orthodox anthropology and theology, since it is intrinsically related to the fact that man has been created in the image of God. This is, in turn, related to the profound reality that, aher the work of recapitulatio in Christ, nature is divinised by the Spirit. In actual fact, the notion of liberty is seen as being a liberty beyond the intrigues of human life: "Liberty itself seems to be regarded above all as spiritual liberty and universal communion." Elsewhere, Congar avers the following idea, which leads one to see in it a promise of the possibility of attaining an ever-greater degree of liberty.