-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“From an objective point of view’” said the Pope, “God’s Revelation in Christ is the Truth whose answer is obedience to the faith in communion with the Church and its Ministry.
Is obedience really freedom? I had a short conversation earlier with a fellow student regarding this matter, but unfortunately, there was not much time to talk. I promised to blog about this, so here is the post!
Pope Benedict, in the quote above and in many others, has said that obedience to faith is the primary virtue. A peer agreed with this and advanced an argument saying that freedom is obedience. I vehemently disagreed with this claim because obedience, by definition, is not freedom.
Obedience - conformity to a monastic rule or the authority of a religious superior, esp. on the part of one who has vowed such conformance.
Freedom -
1) the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint: He won his freedom after a retrial.
2) exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc
Obedience and freedom clearly do not go hand-in-hand. Why should obedience be the key virtue? Why shouldn't thinking and questioning be virtues?
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