ABSTRACT
The first chapter of this book develops further the relationship of freedom and destiny, and shows how crucial this relationship is to the life of authentic religious faith. It does so under the rubric of “contextual freedom,” showing how the involvement of freedom in the life of religious faith is a continual process of consciously working to transform what is brought forward from its past so as to respond actively to the challenges and needs of the present. Time does not stand still, and neither should the life of faith. In this chapter, the author explains the crucial distinction between truths of religious belief, on the one hand, and the nature of existential truth, on the other, and shows how the latter figures fundamentally in stances of religious faith. He also addresses the issue of weakness of will and discusses its bearing on the topic of faith and freedom.
