Page "Christian communism" Paragraph 120

The idea of " free will " as a universal human right was virtually unknown in biblical times.

Slavery was common then in that region of the world, even among the few more open and democratic societies that existed – e. g., the ancient Greeks.

The concept of " free will ", as we know it today, comes primarily from authors during the Renaissance and from philosophers during the Age of Enlightenment in Europe – in other words, not before the 16th century.

Our modern notion of free will as virtuous in itself is not contained anywhere in the Bible.

The moral code of Bible ( both Old and New Testaments ) teaches only that to be moral one must understand and obey " God's Will " ( i. e., " Thy Will be done [...] ").

The idea that it is more ethical for all individuals to have " free will " and freedom to choose their destiny in life, is a very modern notion.

However, in the first chapters of Genesis in the Christian Bible describe the free choice given by God to Adam and Eve whether or not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Advocates of Latin American Liberation Theology object, in this last respect, that the cited objection is referent to a choice that was conditional and not inconsequential.