Christian Anthropology, Libertarianism, Freedom, and the Privatization of Religion

Rick Garnett has this post at the Mirror of Justice Blog considering the compatibility of libertarianism with Christianity. By extension, the discussion raises questions about the nature of freedom and the First Amendment.  These comments by Robert George, who writes from a Catholic perspective, are central to the discussion:  ”. . . I described libertarianism as a ‘heresy.’ By that, I meant that libertarianism is not simply false. It affirms a genuine truth—in this case, the value and importance of liberty or personal autonomy—but affirms it so emphatically and indeed singlemindedly that it winds up denying other equally important truths and values . . . ”

Garnett also quotes and discusses an article by Michael Sean Winters writing at America Magazine.  Winters writes: ”In Sir Isaiah Berlin’s writings on liberalism – which are the most important writings on liberalism of the last century – he distinguished between two types of freedom: ‘freedom for’ he called positive freedom and ‘freedom from’ he called negative freedom. Positive freedom is typically Kantian, negative freedom is American, and is the basis of our Bill of Rights. I do not see how a polity premised on negative freedom can keep from issuing in a privatization of religion. The problem for libertarianism . . . is that it starts at the wrong place. It is not a truth run amok. It is a falsehood masquerading as a truth. Yes, human freedom is a good thing, but what is freedom? I do not see how you can reconcile negative freedom with Christian anthropology. The ‘freedom of the children of God’ of which St. Paul writes is not autonomy . . . “