Telos.  Nature.  Plato’s Cave.  In-N-Out.  John 8:31-32.  And, of course, Giraffes.  In this episode, Justin and I attempt to chart the last leg of our history of freedom as we turn to the Christian and classical understanding of freedom.  Onward to human flourishing and the sun of the good!  Onward to Sarah Smith of Golders Green!  Onward to Giraffes with Long Necks!

“True Freedom is the realization of a complex nature in its proper ends, both natural and supernatural.  It is the power o a thing to flourish, to become ever more fully what it is.  But to think of freedom thus, one must believe not only that we possess an actual nature which must flourish to be free but also that there is a transcendent good toward which that nature is oriented.  to be fully free is to be joined to that end for which our natures were originally framed, and whatever separates us from that end, including even our own personal choices, is a form of bondage… We are free, that is to say, not because we can choose, but only when we have chosen well.”

–DBH