Irony of the German Reformation : ‘Spiritual Freedom’ and Discipline of People

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 145-171
Author(s):  
Joon-Chul PARK ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Freedom

scholarly journals Nikolai Berdyaev’s Dialectics of Freedom: In Search for Spiritual Freedom

Open Theology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 299-308
Author(s):  
Raul-Ovidiu Bodea
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Existential Philosophy ◽  
Spiritual Freedom ◽  
Theology And Philosophy ◽  
Fallen World

Abstract In Berdyaev’s notion of freedom the borders between theology and philosophy seem to fall down. The same existential concern for spiritual freedom is at the heart of both theology and philosophy. From the point of view of existential philosophy as Berdyaev understands it, only a theologically informed account of freedom, could do justice to the concept of freedom. But a freedom determined by God is not what Berdyaev had in mind as representing authentic freedom. It was necessary for him to reinterpret Jakob Boehme’s concept of Ungrund to arrive at a notion of uncreated freedom that both God and man share. But the articulation of this freedom, and an account of it within our fallen world could only be done as a philosophical pursuit. To arrive at the authentic understanding of spiritual freedom, that is theologically informed, Berdyaev believes that a philosophical rejection of erroneous views of freedom should take place. The articulation of the notion of freedom that does justice to the complexity of the existential situation of both God and man is not for Berdyaev a purpose in itself. The purpose is the arrival at a non-objectified knowledge of freedom that would inform a theologically committed existential attitude.

scholarly journals TRANCE-GRESSION: TECHNOSHAMANISM, CONSERVATISM AND PAGAN POLITICS

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-220
Author(s):  
David Green
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public Order ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
Especial Reference ◽  
Conservative Government ◽  
Rave Culture ◽  
Spiritual Freedom

This article looks at the politics of successive Conservative governments in Britain in the 1980s and ‘90s through the lens of the increasing politicisation of Paganisms in that period. A wave of moral panics in the late ‘80’s and early ‘90s concerning marginal communities – such as Ravers, New Age travellers and anti-road protesters – and their ‘riotous assemblies’, culminated in the Conservative Government of John Major enacting The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994. This was seen by these communities as legislation against alternative lifestyles and, in some respects, an infringement of spiritual freedom. Using the case study of technoshamanism – a Pagan meeting of ‘rave’ culture and neo-shamanism – I wish to examine how the political and Pagan religious landscapes of ‘80s and ‘90s Britain intersected and led to politically engaged forms of Pagan practice often centred around grassroots lifestyle and environmental politics. This will be explored with especial reference to the politicisation of The Spiral Tribe, a technoshamanic collective of the early ‘90s, and their increasing involvement in resisting the 1994 Act and promotion of campaigns such as Reclaim the Streets.

Svaraj, the Indian ideal of freedom: a political or religious concept?

1984 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 429-441
Author(s):  
C. Mackenzie Brown
Keyword(s):  
Eighth Century ◽  
Religious Concept ◽  
Spiritual Freedom ◽  
The Ideal

To many Western students of India, svarāj and mokṣa have often seemed to represent two very different ideals of freedom, the former social, political, and modern; the latter individual, spiritual, and traditional. It is not surprising that the Hindu ideal of spiritual freedom is most commonly known by the term mokṣa (liberation), for it is this word that is usually listed as the fourth and supreme goal in the famous four ends of man (puruṣārtha). The first three ends, desire (kāma), success (artha), and morality (dharma), find their fulfillment within society, while mokṣa, it is generally said, takes one beyond society. It is pertinent to note, as Ingalls and others have pointed out, that mokṣa is a relatively late term, which came to be added to the older, first three goals of man. As a noun, mokṣa does not appear until the latest of the Upanisads, and then only three times, in Śvetāśvatara 6.16 and Maitrī 6.20 and 30. In addition, some orthodox schools did not accept the ideal of mokṣa for several more centuries, the Mīmāṁsā denying it until the eighth century A.D.

A Different Kind of Freedom? Order and Discipline among the Moravian Brethren in Germany and Salem, North Carolina 1771–1801

1994 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Sommer
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
German Society ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Precise Meaning ◽  
Private Lives ◽  
Communal Orientation ◽  
Spiritual Freedom ◽  
The Town ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Specific Impact

On 19 January 1774, Joseph Müller was expelled from the town of Salem, North Carolina for becoming engaged to Sarah Hauser without the permission of the Elders Conference. On 23 August 1775 Mattheus Weiβ was likewise expelled forwriting a “bad letter” to friends in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and on 4 November 1789, Jacob Bonn Jr., who hadbeen struggling with chronic debt, was expelled for refusing to sell his house and accept a steward for his finances. Theexpulsion of inhabitants for such offenses seems odd in a century labelled the “age of enlightenment.” It might well be viewed by good American constitutionalists as an unacceptable intrusion into the private lives of the individuals concerned. For the Moravian Brethren who built Salem on an ideal molded in Germany, the behavior of such offending Brethren represented a conflict between two different concepts of freedom: that of individual freedom, whichcame to be identified by both the European and American leadership of the Brethren as “American,” and that ofa spiritual freedom, which found expression in the submission to the good of the whole and obedience to Christ as literallord of the community. Historian A. G. Roeber has pointed out that many Germans were puzzled by “the American freedom” especially in the post-revolutionary years and did not always even agree among themselves over its precise meaning. Clearly, however, for many of them it represented a sharp departure from the more communal orientation of German society and government. Even the greater spiritual freedom offered by the lack of a state church was often viewed ambiguously. We can gain insight into the particular meaning of the conflict for the Brethren by first looking at the origins of the Moravian behavioral ideal, then at the way in which the dynamics of church/town discipline illustrate the tension between communal ideal and individual freedom, and finally by considering the specific impact of the translation of this ideal to an American setting.

The Ascetic Life

2020 ◽  
pp. 163-185
Author(s):  
Luke Dysinger
Keyword(s):  
Moral Virtue ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Biblical Exegesis ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Words And Images ◽  
Spiritual Freedom

In classical antiquity the term asceticism described the training necessary to acquire a skill. In Christianity asceticism comprises the practices or exercises that Christians undertake as part of the quest for moral virtue and spiritual freedom. This, in turn, prepares the soul for both the contemplation of God in creation and the ineffable contemplation of God beyond words and images. Asceticism, thus understood, comprises a wide range of spiritual practices that must be constantly assessed and employed as needed in the maintenance of spiritual balance. Ascetical practices discussed in this chapter include: fasting, almsgiving, prayer, martyrdom, celibacy, simplification of life, biblical exegesis, watchfulness over thoughts, discernment, liturgical asceticism, penitential practices, pilgrimage, dispossession, labour, and the service of others.

Gandhi, Freedom, and Self-Rule. Edited by Anthony J. Parel. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2000. 164p. $70.00 cloth, $23.95 paper.

2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 810-811
Author(s):  
Pratap B. Mehta
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Initial Orientation ◽  
Political Freedom ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Mahatma Gandhi ◽  
Self Rule ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Spiritual Freedom

The life and thought of Mahatma Gandhi continues to be a reproach to ideologies and dispositions that produced the horrors of the twentieth century. But his complex legacy suffers from a paradox. His ideas appear to be both necessary and improbable at the same time. To many, Gandhi's thought becomes even more relevant in a context in which the vision of modernity that he critiqued so powerfully has triumphed, the violence that he stood against has become an ineliminable feature of political life, and the practice of freedom has come to be dissociated from the exercise of virtue. But the very same historical momentum that inspires the authors in this volume to turn to Gandhi also seems to make Gandhi an even more distant and unlikely figure for our times. This volume, a product of sincere and careful scholarship, is largely an effort to keep Gandhi's thought alive. It focuses on the central category of Gandhian thought, swaraj (self-rule). Anthony Parel's essay usefully distinguishes between four meanings of freedom for Gandhi: freedom as national independence, freedom as freedom from poverty, political freedom for the individual, and freedom as the capacity for self-rule or spiritual freedom. This typology will provide a helpful initial orientation to readers unfamiliar with Gandhi's thought.

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