Essay draft:

Discuss the concept of Freedom from a religious perspective.

The Catholic perspective on freedom has multiple key features that help guide and teach each
person achieve authentic freedom, which gives us the capacity to make choices which makes us
human and reflect the image of God. Freedom though the perspective of the Catholic church is
defined as “… the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so
to perform deliberate actions on ones own responsibility.” CCC1731. These main key features
include the desire to be free originating from God and is part of His creative plan for us, that God
creates us with free will, that Jesus is the source of the truth and path to perfect freedom and that
internal and external pressures can reduce our freedom. Thus through these key features we
begin to see the Catholic perspective on the concept of freedom.

The first key feature is that the desire to be free comes from God and is part of His creative plan.
God made humans in God’s image and likeness and, as such, the human person has unalienable
God-given dignity. CCC 1730 expresses this though the following “God willed that man should be
‘left in the hand of his own council,’ so he might of his own accord seek his creator and freely
attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him.” The Catholic desire or yearning from
freedom is part of being human and has a purpose which was first revealed in his creation story.
Catholics believe that all God created is good, people are created in the image and likeness of
God, begin their existence in God’s created world knowing and relating fully with God. However if
we do not do right by God then we are damaging our four harmonious relationships with Him.
These being harmony with creation, with God, with others and with ourselves.

Furthermore God has created each individual with free will. Which according to CCC 1704 is “By
free will (the human person) is capable of directing himself towards true good…”. This is because
freewill is God given, the dignity of a person’s free will, as does the dignity of each person needs
to be respected. However contrary to this the a person voluntarily makes a choice they are
personally responsible for their own choice. God’s will is not forced on us and instead he desires
that each person comes to know and live Him. This love as all love cannot be forced but demands
a free response. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church 2002 we understand that
each person has the freedom to chose, to chose between good and evil, which is known as free
will, stating “God’s free initiative demands man’s free response, for God has created man in his
image by conferring to him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him. The soul
only enters freely into the communion of love.”. We are created with free will and the full ability to
choose goodness and love that God has to offer to all who accept God into their lives. As the
CCC 1731 states “Human freedom… attains its perfection when directed towards God, our
beatitude.” And so we can see how Catholics believe that their desire comes from God and how
though our yearning for freedom that it is part of His Creative plan. Hence through the Catholic
understanding that God created us with free will can be seen in how it is seen as God-given and a
personal responsibility to uphold it for good, just like Jesus Christ.

Another main key feature of the Catholic church on freedom is that Jesus is the source of the truth
and the path to perfect, authentic freedom sent by the father to offer us salvation. Jesus is the
one who offers true freedom. He shares it with all who relate with him freedom from human
weakness. Biblical evidence which supports this is it is stated that Jesus stated “I am the Way
and Truth and the Life.” (John 14:6). For us to be able to follow Jesus people need to know him,
because if they don’t know him then they dint know what to relate with him and to draw upon the
freedom he offers. They also need to know the teachings of Jesus, and so they need to know how
the teachings of Jesus relate to their everyday lives. Such teachings include his golden rule of
treating your neighbours like how you want to be treated. Finally they need to personally relate
with Jesus and live as he taught. Furthermore in Catholic teaching Jesus is presented as reversing
the choice of Adam and Eve though introducing the sacrament of Baptism. By remaining faithful
to his fathers will, even at the expense of his own life, Jesus showed the extent of God’s love for
all people and overcomes all that ‘enslaves’ people in life. It is Jesus that both shows and
empowers people in their research for true freedom. Hence through this we can see that Jesus us
the source of the truth and the path to perfection, authentic freedom within the Catholic concept
of religion.

However, This brings us to the fourth key feature that all humans are faced with internal and
external pressures that can reduce our freedom. To be responsible a choice needs to be made
freely, without undue pressure. thus anyone wishing to make a responsible choice needs to be
free from any external or internal pressures. Internal pressures can come in a variety of forms,
including but not limited to strong emotions such as fear, anger and desire, personal habits such
as a desire to lie, to be jealous, take the easy way out and following the crowd, and though having
strong temptations to do wrong such as steal, be vengeful and violent. Then external pressures on
the other hand include social trends, peer pressure in the form of taking illicit substances and
having the idea that one must meet the expectations of others which is prominent in todays
society though social media. However we can limit these internal and external pressures if we
have faith in God and Jesus.

To conclude, The catholic perspective on their concept of freedom has many key features
including the desire to be free coming from God as it is part of his God Given plan, God created
us with free will, Jesus is of the truth and path to perfect authentic freedom and understanding
that we are faced with internal and external pressures that can reduce our freedom.