The idea of freedom in protestantism

Abstract

Starting from the methodological assumption that ideas have a driving power and from the distinction between negative and positive notions of freedom (Berlin), this paper deals with the role that the idea of individual freedom, as a central part of the Protestant pattern of Christian life, played in the origin and spread of the reformation movement in XVI century. In his criticism of the corruptive practices of the Roman Catholic Church and his reliance on the Bible as the only authority (sola scriptura) regarding Christian teaching, Luther gave the concept of freedom a religious content: a necessary and sufficient condition for the spiritual (positive) freedom of the person is contained in the slogan sola fide, while in external life each individual has the obligation to accept his social position and conscientiously fulfill the calling (Beruf) that God has set for him. After he published them in the form of 95 theses in 1517, Luther?s views spread and initiated decades of conflicts that resulted in major cultural, political and economic changes. They directly or indirectly influenced the profiling of the modern Western European order, but they did not escape the trap into which many similar doctrines fell - the privileged social classes (rulers and nobility), whose interests they corresponded to, used them to achieve their own goals. Thanks to the Enlightenment and liberal tradition, today we inherit a more universal conception of basic human liberties and rights, devoid of religious content, but the temptations remain the same.