Spirituality: Martin Buber and Freedom

In a remarkable passage, Buber reflected on human freedom. One who is free, he wrote, ‘believes in the real solidarity of the real twofold entity I and Thou. He believes in destiny, and believes that it stands in need of him.’ Such a person, according to Buber, becomes free to promote relationships. In fact, anyone at ease in I-thou relationships has the main prerequisite for creating faith relationships by which people become free. Interpersonal encounter, one may infer from Buber’s observations, is faith in action and community-building in effect. By contrast, ‘the self-willed man does not believe and does not meet. He does not know the solidarity of connexion, but only the feverish world outside and his feverish desire to use it.’

Adrian Lyons, S.J. from Imagine Believing