Overview

Freedom, Philosophy, and Faith: The Transformational Role of Freedom in the Thought of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas highlights the essential role freedom plays in the Catholic intellectual tradition. Montague Brown argues that that freedom, taken in its most essential form as understood by the Judeo-Christian tradition, has been transformative in all aspects of human thought, from metaphysics to politics. In particular, the book traces the fundamental role freedom plays in the thought of St. Augustine (as it transforms his Platonism) and in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas (as it transforms his Aristotelianism). Brown introduces the topic of freedom in the rich context of the Judeo-Christian intellectual tradition of ""faith seeking understanding,"" and traces the role of freedom in metaphysics, time and history, morality, marriage, economics, and politics. Through each aspect, Brown delves deep into the thoughts of St. Augustine and St. Thomas, showing how their positions are superior to the materialist pluralism and idealist monism that inform much ancient and modern thought and which are clearly incompatible with freedom. His discussion in supplemented with more contemporary thinkers, including papal teaching.

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Reviews

Brown (philosophy, Saint Anselm College) supplies a sweeping, comprehensive reflection on the philosophical and historical implications of Christian freedom. He previously wrote The One-Minute Philosopher (2001) and The Quest for Moral Foundations (CH, Nov'96, 34-1480). Brown writes from a Catholic and broadly Thomistic point of view. Each chapter seeks to explore a facet of the Catholic intellectual tradition that has been informed by the Judeo-Christian notion of freedom: metaphysics, time and history, morality, marriage, and economics and politics. The classic work in this field is Mortimer Adler's The Idea of Freedom (1958-61), although its publication date and massive size have rendered it less useful in the classroom. Among more recent books are Beyond the New Morality by Germain Grisez and Russell Shaw (3rd ed., 1988) and The Sources of Christian Ethics by Servais Pinckaers (translated from the 3rd ed. by M. T. Noble, 1995). A welcome resource for professionals and graduate students, Brown's book is accessible enough for advanced undergraduates. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty. * CHOICE * We are very much indebted to Montague Brown for Freedom, Philosophy, and Faith, an excellent, clear study of freedom in the work of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. While written with a focus on freedom in Catholic thought, the book should be of interest to those concerned with freedom and the history of ideas in general. One of the merits of the study is that while Montague uses some terms from contemporary reflections on freedom, such as compatibility, libertarianism, and so on, he engages the figures of his study in their own terms. He is careful not to impose some independent current account of freedom on his subjects, but to articulate and put on exhibit how the philosophers (or philosopher-theologians) themselves understood the question(s) they were addressing, and why they proposed the answers they did. This makes for a lively and engaging text. ... Brown is successful both in opening up a fresh view of Augustine and Aquinas and in highlighting the central role of freedom in the formative period of Western thought. * Journal Of Interdisciplinary Studies * Montague Brown's Freedom, Philosophy, and Faith is a complex, remarkably learned, profound, and deeply illuminating understanding of the fundamental Western idea of freedom. -- James Hitchcock, St. Louis University This is simply the best book . . . about this absolutely crucial subject. It trumps even Mortimer Adler's classic The Idea of Freedom and is more complete, even though it's shorter. When you read Montague Brown you are amazed and scandalized that other living philosophers cannot be both as profound (and persuasive, and life-changing) and as clear (and compelling, and simple). -- Peter Kreeft, Boston College

Montague Brown s Freedom, Philosophy, and Faith is a complex, remarkably learned, profound, and deeply illuminating understanding of the fundamental Western idea of freedom.--James Hitchcock

Montague Brown 's Freedom, Philosophy, and Faith is a complex, remarkably learned, profound, and deeply illuminating understanding of the fundamental Western idea of freedom.--James Hitchcock

Author Information

Montague Brown is chair of philosophy at St. Anselm College.

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