Understanding Human Faculties and Freedom in Christian Morality

Description of Human Faculties

Primitive Christianity made a huge effort to absorb the essential elements of Greek philosophy. A basic element is reason. According to the Platonic model, there are two different meanings or types of reason.

Universal Reason (LOGOS)

It governs the order of the world. According to Plato, this one lies in a superior world. Its supreme essences are the ideas: good, truth, and beauty.

Individual, Partial, and Limited Reason in Each Man

It allows captivating the superior order. However, the ascendance of the sensible world to the intelligible world is never produced completely. It is always done with difficulties.

Classical Notion of Human Freedom

It is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility. By free will, one shapes one’s own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness. It attains its perfection when directed toward God. It is another important element. Without freedom, we cannot speak about morality or moral responsibility. Human freedom is the capacity to choose between two or more things. God gave us the right to become who he created us to be and to share an eternal union with him. This union happens when we consistently choose ways that are in harmony with God's plan. Christian morality and God's law are given to us for the pursuit of happiness. God gave us the intelligence and the capacity to act freely to pursue this happiness. We are free to say "yes" to God.

On the other hand, many people today understand human freedom as the ability to make a choice, with no objective norm or good as the goal. But freedom has limits, man is called to accept the moral law given by God. In fact, human freedom finds its authentic and complete fulfillment precisely in the acceptance of that law. By deviating from the moral law, man violates his own freedom, becomes imprisoned within himself, disrupts neighborly fellowship, and rebels against divine truth.

Natural Freedom

Exclusive patrimony of those creatures gifted with intelligence or reason. It is nothing else than the faculty of choosing between those means which are appropriate to accomplish a certain end. Each of us is responsible for our acts and we are free to decide if we want to return to God.

Moral Freedom

Interpretation which believes that mankind is absolutely free, without limitations, to decide by himself what is objectively good or bad. Freedom, as a faculty which perfects man, should be applied exclusively to truth and goodness. Therefore, the nature of human freedom includes the necessity to obey a higher and eternal reason, which is the authority of God.

Morality

Every act that we perform is considered morally good when it is objectively good. There are some actions that will always be wrong, although their intention is morally correct, for instance, when a poor person steals a loaf of bread to give it to his family. The action which is robbing is not objectively good and the concept of “robbing” will always be seen as something wrong apart from the subjective goal that is in this case a good intention.

In the same way, for an action to be morally good, the intention must always be good. Sometimes we want to do something which is objectively good but with a bad intention, so in this case, our action is morally evil.