Alle radici della libertà, tra Atene e Gerusalemme. Note su M. Barberis, Libertà, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1999

Abstract

In reviewing Mauro Barberi’s book Libertà, the reviewer sketches the many topics of the book and its historical reconstruction. At the same time the reviewer points out some significant sources of Western civilization, such as Jewish and Christian writings, that generally are not correctly considered even in this book. In fact, one notices the striking absence of any term corresponding to the Greek "eleutheria" in the Jewish Bible and a very limited and suspicious use of the term in the New Testament. This suggests a different meaning given to and possibly a different interest in what we call "freedom" among Greek and Judeo-Christian thinkers. This issue relates to the difficulties and the fractures still existing within Western thought towards globalization.