Freedom, Philosophy, and Faith The Transformative Role of Judeo-Christian Freedom in Western Thought

Freedom, Philosophy, and Faith: The Transformational Role of Freedom in the Thought of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas highlights the essential role freedom plays in the Catholic intellectual tradition. Montague Brown argues that that freedom, taken in its most essential form as understood by the Judeo-Christian tradition, has been transformative in all aspects of human thought, from metaphysics to politics. In particular, the book traces the fundamental role freedom plays in the thought of St. Augustine (as it transforms his Platonism) and in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas (as it transforms his Aristotelianism). Brown introduces the topic of freedom in the rich context of the Judeo-Christian intellectual tradition of "faith seeking understanding," and traces the role of freedom in metaphysics, time and history, morality, marriage, economics, and politics. Through each aspect, Brown delves deep into the thoughts of St. Augustine and St. Thomas, showing how their positions are superior to the materialist pluralism and idealist monism that inform much ancient and modern thought and which are clearly incompatible with freedom. His discussion in supplemented with more contemporary thinkers, including papal teaching.

Montague Brown is chair of philosophy at St. Anselm College.