Summary of text [comment] page 83
[In section 2.3, Schoonenberg discusses freedom.
My model for freedom is the thought experiment where ‘I choose something’.
So, I ask the question:
When I, the seat of choice chooses, do I choose a value?
If so, how does value link to the word ‘freedom’?]
Summary of text [comment] page 83
‘Freedom of will’ is implicit in the Scripture’s use of the word ‘heart’.
What comes from the heart?
Thoughts, words and deeds come from the heart. Choice comes from the heart.
[Have we seen something like this before?]
Summary of text [comment] page 83
[The declaration, ‘I am not my sin.’, simultaneously evokes the question: Who am I?]
Summary of text [comment] page 83
[Schoonenberg argued that Paul’s phrase in Romans 7:17 indicates bondage to sin.
In An Archaeology of the Fall (sections 294 through 299) this same verse indicates Paul’s release from the bondage of sin.
Otherwise, how could he say, ‘I am not my sin.’?]
This leads to the question:
Does bondage to sin mean the suppression of all freedom?
Schoonenberg answered like this:
Yes, if the term “freedom” is understood simply in contrast to “bondage”.
No, if the term “freedom”’ means “freedom of the will”, a correspondence the Bible never uses, but is implicit in the Scriptures use of the word “heart”’.
Summary of text [comment] page 83
[Schoonenberg moved to another facet of virtue and sin.]
According to Paul, sin rules in “man” and over “man” through concupiscence.
Schoonenberg quoted Paul’s Letter to the Romans 7:17. His sinful deeds “are not done by I, but by the sin that dwells in me.”
Paul is in bondage to a sinful attitude that renders him powerlessness.]
