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Document Details :

Title: «And the Truth Will Set You Free»
Subtitle: On the Relationship between Religion, Truth and Power
Author(s): GROSSHANS, Hans-Peter
Journal: Studies in Interreligious Dialogue
Volume: 17    Issue: 2   Date: 2007   
Pages: 185-204
DOI: 10.2143/SID.17.2.2024006

Abstract :
This article describes the role that Protestant Christianity ascribes to power in relation to truth. Because this question has to do with the metaphysics involved in the Christian religion, this article starts by explaining the understanding of metaphysics found in Protestant theology, a metaphysics that can be called a “metaphysics of freedom.” The article argues subsequently that freedom itself, which is the main focus of the Christian religion, sets free the power to realize itself. Distinguishing this concept of power from violence, the article explains the Protestant understanding of the power of freedom as that which realises itself in exploring the world and in establishing orders of freedom by means of the law on the local, regional, national and international levels. The author thus argues that Protestant theology conceives of power not only in a power-theoretical perspective but as a result of the truth of Christian faith.

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