God and Freedom: Biblical Roots of the Western Idea of Liberty by Rémi Brague

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December 13, 2013 | Rémi Brague is delivering a keynote address on God and Freedom: Biblical Roots of the Western Idea of Liberty, in which he traces the roots of Western liberty back to the Bible. According to Brague, free institutions hardly ever developed in places that were not influenced by Jewish and Christian ideas. Outside the Judeo-Christian tradition, it has been rare for thinkers to suppose that God endowed us with a nature of our own, that freedom is part of that nature, and that is through the exercise of freedom - and the errors that inevitably stem from freedom - that we fulfill God's plan. According to Lord Acton, "liberty is not a means to a higher political end; it is itself the highest political end." That statement is an echo of voices that can be heard in all the sacred books of the Western tradition, from the Torah to St. Paul's Epistles.

Rémi Brague
Rémi Brague is professor emeritus of Medieval and Arabic Philosophy at the University of Paris. He also holds the Romano Guardini Chair at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. Educated primarily at the Sorbonne, Brague began his career as a student of Greek philosophy. From there, he was led to study Hebrew in order to read the Old Testament. Finally, he turned to a study of Arabic. Accordingly, most of his work has taken place at the intersection of the three Abrahamic religions as they developed out of the ancient world, formed themselves in dialogue with one another, and eventually gave rise to modernity. He is the author of numerous books on classical and medieval intellectual history, religion, national identity, literature, and law. Among his books are Eccentric Culture: A Theory of Western Civilization (originally published in French as La voie romaine in 1992) and The Law of God: The Philosophical History of an Idea (2008). Brague was awarded the 2012 Ratzinger Prize by Pope Benedict XVI. At the "Christianity and Freedom" conference, Rémi Brague is delivering a keynote address on God and Freedom: Biblical Roots of the Western Idea of Liberty, in which he traces the roots of Western liberty back to the Bible. On the second day of the conference, Brague is also participating in "A Conversation on Christianity and Freedom in the Future of the West."