Liberating Constraints
This week’s discussion on Chapter Three was written by Andrew and Carlton Johnson. This is ShelfLife’s first ever collaboration between brothers. Thanks for starting the conversation this week guys!
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In the beginning of chapter three, Keller quotes a woman named Charlene who stated, “I want to live for…my own sake.” To her, she thought Christianity would stifle her creativity and growth. I believe her opinion is at the heart of those who say that Christianity is a “straight jacket”. However as I continued to read I found that Keller makes what I believe to be an excellent argument for how this view is misleading and ultimately is itself constraining. If we constantly chose our way, we will ultimately end up destroying ourselves.
Two recent conversations aided in my better understanding of Keller’s perspective in this regard:
First Conversation – A Chinese graduate student at SMU lived a successful life in China up until he turned 33 when his wife got an opportunity to come work in America. While having dinner recently, he told me about a friend of his here in the States that owns a business and therefore can choose his work schedule and run his business as he sees fit. This man’s experiences vary greatly from those of my friend’s countrymen who live with many restrictions and regulations which don’t allow them to always choose what they want to do. I quickly concluded that he equates freedom, as many Westerners do, with being able to do whatever you want whenever you want.
Second Conversation – A former heroin addict grew up in Chicago. His dad was as a gang leader and his mom was a prostitute. He lived many years of his life running drug rings, using cocaine, heroin, and alcohol. His world came crashing down one day when he finally became exhausted from his lifestyle. He thought he was living a life of freedom, however, after years of recovery, he now sees that he was enslaved to his own desires.
Keller comments that love is the ultimate freedom. “To experience the joy and freedom of love, you must give up your personal autonomy” and “involve mutual, unselfish service, a mutual loss of independence.” Based on this proclamation, the remainder of my conversation with my friend from China now makes more sense to me. While he envies some of the perceived “freedom” his friend here in the States enjoys, he deeply values the freedom realized by his countrymen due to their giving up some autonomy out of love for country and each other.
In this same way, my friend from Chicago found freedom in turning his life over to Jesus Christ. He now defines freedom as “living your life believing our Creator has embraced us in grace and has taken away our chains of sin and can now utilize our God-given gifts and abilities to the fullest in such a way that brings us complete joy and fulfillment.” 1 John 3:16 speaks to the best example of true love and freedom through the forfeiture of self-autonomy, “this is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.”
Discussion Questions
- How would you have defined freedom before you read this chapter?
- In following Charlene’s statement how do you accept the iRobot view and believe that “true freedom is freedom to create your own meaning and purpose”?
- Can you truly define freedom without taking into consideration your community / society?
- Do you believe that if you always made selfish decisions you would be fulfilled in life?
- Have you been in a relationship that you are placing restrictions on your desires for the betterment of another, which ultimately then increases your joy?
Discussion Questions Related to Other Sections of Chapter Three
- When evaluating your community, would you conclude you are inclusive or exclusive?
- How would you relate your community to Christianity?
- Keller uses the New Jerusalem to “prove” that Christianity is an inclusive worldwide religion, do the future promises provide you comfort in Christianity today?
- Personal Application – Can you relate to Keller’s work comparison? If you were to reevaluate your career decisions, would you conclude you are actually restricting your full potential?
3 responses so far
I thought a passage this morning’s reading in The Journey was relevant to Keller’s point about true freedom:
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Mathew 7:13-14
If one believes that freedom is doing whatever they want (the wide gate), that path ultimately leads to destruction. On the flip side, if one believes freedom is found within the contraints of love (the narrow gate), that path leads to life.
[Reply]
“Freedom, then, is not the absence of limitations and constraints but it is finding the right ones, those that fit our nature and liberate us.” p.49
In light of the first chapter and this one, Christianity Is a Straightjacket, I found this definition quite helpful. Keller has so far been careful to point out that various truth claims are all inherently exclusive. If truth claims, or worldviews, differ in their description of the nature of reality, then only one can be correct OR all could be wrong. In light of the discussion on freedom, perhaps it is the falling in line with the one correct description of the nature of reality that we can find freedom. Yet, if the true nature of reality is not known, then man is left to live without freedom because he does not understand his nature.
Christ’s words in John 8 fit Keller’s definition as well. “If you continue to follow my teaching, you are really my disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). Christ believed His revelation of reality and human nature was the correct fit and we will find freedom with Him. Thoughts?
Also, the effects of governmental structure on theology and philosophy has been of interest to me of late. As it pertains to this chapter’s notion of freedom and liberty, what are your thoughts on how our democracy and tenets of personal freedom and liberty as they are communicated in our culture influence Christian commitment to God and others?
[Reply]
Dave, great thoughts.
A few thoughts that came to me were that personal freedom derived from the government should only liberate us to do God’s work with less persecution. In countries where government restricts our personal freedom, I don’t believe this decreases our responsibility as believers to live out the Great Commission; however I do believe it can make it more challenging. I believe that given our country’s constitution and protected freedoms we should have great personal freedoms and thus very high levels of commitment to God and others. In country’s of great persecution this probably means your freedom in Christ may lead to great personal constraints (chains to death); however praise be to God that our freedoms do not ultimately come from man.
[Reply]