Theology | May 11, 2016
"In the one case, freedom is pursued at the cost of equality, in the other equality is pursued at the cost of freedom. Both derive from the enlightenment vision of human beings as autonomous individuals within innate and equal rights to pursue self chosen ends to the limit of their powers. Each ideology can accuse the other of violating a faith they both hold, by the denial of freedom on one side, and the denial of equality on the other.
I believe that the Christian view of God's purpose for the human family is different from both of these, and arises from a distinct belief about what human nature is. From its first page to its last, the Bible is informed by a vision of human nature where neither freedom nor equality is fundamental.
What is fundamental is relatedness. Man, male and female, is made for God in such a way that being in the image of God involves being bound together in this most profound of all mutual relations. God binds himself in a covenant relationship which men and women, to which he remains faithful at whatever cost and however unfaithful his covenant partner is. And people and nations are called to live in binding covenant relationships of brotherhood. Human beings reach their true end in such relatedness, in bonds of mutual love and obedience, that reflect the mutual relatedness in love, that is the being of the triune God himself.
Neither freedom nor equality are ideas that can take us to the heart of the matter. The breakdown of relationships will destroy freedom and will destroy equality, but neither of these will be achieved by being sort for itself. True freedom is not found by seeking to develop the powers of self without limit, for the human person is not made for autonomy, but for true relatedness in love and obedience, and this also entails the acceptance of limits as a necessary part of what it means to be human.”
- Lesslie Newbigin: Foolishness to the Greeks, The Gospel and Western Culture