The Task of Theological Humanism
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see identity constituted through conformity to social authority (Church or political association). Freedom unmoored from moral substance or tradition is understood by them as little more than license or unfaithfulness and so the sad and troubled legacy of modern individualism. (^19) The contractarian position
implies that freedom means that a citizen is supposedly able to assume a position in relation to their various values and validate them as needed. The idea of freedom consistent with theological humanism is different. Freedom is the capacity of an entire person or community to labor responsibly for the neutral
integrity of life in oneself and in others. It is the ability to give priority to and reasons for orienting life in specific situations. One’s identity is neither an undeniable destiny nor, in theological terms, a foreordained election; it is also not chosen or reinvented willy-nilly. Whatever the ultimate end of existence
might be, in this life human beings can, may, and must responsibly orient life in ways that foster life and delimit destruction. One does not take a neutral stance in relation to one’s identities, nor assume that they can all be tested at once. Freedom is the capacity to make decisions of priority about one’s
identities ademands of responsibility? Conscience is a term for human beings as whole creatures with multiple identities and in whom the capacity for choice and How then is one to speak of freedom as intrinsically linked to the joys and nd commitments with respect to the good of the integrity of life.
action is infused with a sense of responsibility that arises through our many senses of goodness that saturate life. It is the call to orient the self and one’s identities towards actions and relations that respect and enhance the integ-rity of life. For precisely this reason, a basic right of human beings is freedom
of consciencehuman being can rightfully be coerced to conform his or her identity and life to any power, no matter how seemingly legitimate or how divinely author-ized, that denies the capacity of conscience as the labor of human life. and that just means the freedom to be a responsible agent. No
identity than many communitarians and Christian or religious particularists. One can also be less worried than contractarians to keep comprehensive beliefs out of the public square. The concern of the theological humanist is In this light, one can be less anxious about the uniqueness of her or his
different. It is the fear that religious and cultural and social forces will stunt conscience and demand unity rather than integrity of identity. And to be sure, complex social systems, especially within the whirl of global dynamics, always encumber and stunt conscience. This is why appeals to “responsibil-
ity” or “social justice” or “love” unmindful of the dynamics of social life never alone orient action or bring about social change. The concern is about human freedom, the failure of conscience, or a weakness of will (to put it in different ways), so that our commitments and responsibilities with and to