Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 2.3 WI
Summary of text [comment] page 85
Schoonenberg wrestled with the knotty issue of the haphazard use of the terms ‘free choice’ and ‘Christian liberty’ in Christian doctrine.
Summary of text [comment] page 85
Schoonenberg wrestled with the knotty issue of the haphazard use of the terms ‘free choice’ and ‘Christian liberty’ in Christian doctrine.
[My choice2V and something about me2H solidify into concupiscence, then into cruelty.
Like a dead person, the eyes are open but they cannot see.
Death is the fixation of law. Death is the illusion of words.
Death becomes the mandala of the heart.]
[Sin enters through the mirror of the world3H. Sin is the lie within the mirror.
Words. Arguments. Excuses.
They increase my bondage and reduce my capacity for responsibilities.]
[Law enters through I, seat of choice3V. It fixates on the something that I may choose1V. My deeds become more and more repetitive. My deeds fall in line with my fixation.]
Summary of text [comment] page 85
[We may freely choose one of two hearts.
Sin, law and death resides in one heart.]
[The mandala of responsibilities, thoughts, freedom and deeds exhibits Christian liberty.
Responsibilities and liberty nourishes the heart.]
[The mandala of words, thoughts, bondage, and deeds opens to sin and law
Sin resides in words.
Law entraps thought.
Words and bondage corrodes the heart.]
Summary of text [comment] page 85
[How does free choice describe the heart?
Is the answer obvious?
There are two mandalas of the heart.
Each person freely chooses one heart or the other.
Each person expresses one mandala or the other.]
Summary of text [comment] page 85
[The term “free choice” matches the single actuality that is the heart.
The term “Christian liberty” goes with responsibility and freedom in the mandala of the heart.]
[Christian liberty entails the capacity to create and maintain responsibilities, especially concerning Christ.
Christian liberty employs the co-opposition of responsibilities3(2 and freedom2(1).]