On Freedom

In this tenth volume of the highly respected Boston University Studies in Philosophy and Religion series, contributors explore new approaches to the role of freedom in the contemporary world. It is clear that the idea of freedom has progressed with autonomous selfhood. But it is not yet evident how freedom is to be understood or promoted in a context where economic, political, cultural, and religious issues demand both pluralism and globalization.

The essays consider three major areas of the debate. The first group of essays is concerned with the relation of Christian thought to freedom in the post-Christian age. Philosophical reconstructions of the idea of freedom are the focus of Part II, which investigates how the past and present can be used to create a new idea of freedom. Part III explores the possibility that individual selves are no more autonomous that they are social and asks the question: "What can we learn about the freedom of the self from contemporary social philosophies like Marxism and feminism and the unprecedented phenomenon of manmade mass death?"

Contributors: Nicholas Lash, Jürgen Moltmann, David W. Tracy, and Robert C. Neville on Theologies of Freedom; John E. Smith, Frithof Bergmann, James R. Langford, and J.N. Mohanty on Philosophies of Freedom; Louis Dupré, Ruth L. Smith, and Edith Wyschogrod on Freedom in Society.

Leroy S. Rouner (d. 2006) was the Professor of Philosophy, Religion and Philosophical Theology and Director of the Institute for Philosophy and Religion at Boston University. He edited a number of books and is the author of Within Human Experience: The Philosophy of William Ernest Hocking and To Be at Home: Christianity, Civil Religion and World Community.