RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Keywords:
Freedom, Right, State of Mind, Dostoevsky, Arahat, PluralismAbstract
Freedom is one of the most controversial topics in the history of philosophy. It seems clear that freedom can mean different things to different people – from hard determinists who challenge its existence, to existentialists and process philosophers, who strongly defend it. Interestingly, all people seem to be free to use their own definitions of freedom as they desire. For instance, freedom can mean independence, autonomy, creativity, non-attachment, the ability to choose or negate, the ability to speak or do, and even the ability to survive. In this paper, I would like to briefly discuss religious freedom in two senses: religious freedom as a right and as a state of mind. I would also like to show in what way these two are connected.
References
Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, trans. Andrew H. MacAndrew, New York: Bantam Books, Inc., 1981, 379-80.
Mark 2:23-28 in The New Jerusalem Bible.
Buddhist Legends (Part I), trans. Eugene Watson Burlingame, Harvard Oriental Series, ed. Charles Rockwell Lanman, Oxford: The Pali Text Society, 1995, 98; see the whole story from Part II, 127-9.
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings comp. Paul Reps, Rutland, VT and Tokyo, Japan: C.E. Tuttle, 1965.
