Christians typically object to deterministic social theories. Humans are not, we insist, slaves to birth, culture, nurture, social status, political affiliation. We are free.
That may be the wrong answer. The right answer may be: Yes, outside of Christ, human beings are slaves to all those things and more. These are the “powers” and the “elementary principles” that hold people in bondage, the powers from which Jesus releases us by His cross and resurrection. Perhaps what we count as evidence of human freedom from these determinations is simply the afterglow of two millennia of evangelization.
Perhaps the typical Christian response to determinism is a variant of Pelagius, and what we need to a sociological Augustinianism.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Moral Certitude and the Iran War
The current military engagement with Iran calls renewed attention to just war theory in the Catholic tradition.…
The Slow Death of England: New and Notable Books
The fate of England is much in the news as popular resistance to mass immigration grows, limits…
Ethics of Rhetoric in Times of War
What we say matters. And the way we say it matters. This is especially true in times…
