Called to Freedom: Retrieving Christian Liberty in an Age of License (Christ in Everything)

by W. Bradford Littlejohn

Publisher:

B&H Academic

, 2025

Overview

Christians in the modern West hear a lot about—and talk a lot about—“freedom.” The word has taken on so many meanings that Christians often fail to realize how much our contemporary ideals of freedom stray from what freedom has meant in Scripture and the Christian tradition.

Called to Freedom: Retrieving Christian Liberty in an Age of License by Bradford Littlejohn seeks to define and disentangle theological, moral, and political concepts of freedom and provide a deeper understanding of what true Christian freedom is—liberation from the bondage of fear and sin.

Littlejohn builds his argument from the Protestant doctrine of Christian liberty anchored in Martin Luther’s Reformation classic The Freedom of a Christian. He then looks at conflicts over technology, the market, and religious liberty as case studies of how a full-orbed Christian idea of freedom helps us respond faithfully to these challenges in our spiritual lives, our churches, and our civic engagement.

Littlejohn argues that a great source on contemporary social problems and trends towards illiberalism derive from a faulty understanding of human freedom which places individuality and authenticity as the highest good for society. Littlejohn argues that the Christian tradition presents a much more compelling vision, namely that freedom cannot lead to flourishing for everyone unless it is rightly ordered to God’s moral commands and divinely ordained sources of authority in our lives. As such, he presents a case against modern secularism and charts a vision for what Christian faith actually has to say to our political and social lives.

Key Features

• Explores theological, moral, and political concepts of freedom
• Looks at conflicts over technology, the market, and religious liberty as case studies
• Builds his argument from the Protestant doctrine of Christian liberty

Product Details

• Title: Called to Freedom: Retrieving Christian Liberty in an Age of License
• Author: W. Bradford Littlejohn
• Series: Christ in Everything
• Publisher: B&H Academic
• Print Publication Date: 2025
• Pages: 144
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Resource ID: LLS:CLLDFRDMVRYTHNG
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-06-06T16:55:20Z

About W. Bradford Littlejohn

W. Bradford Littlejohn (Ph.D, University of Edinburgh, 2013) is President of the Davenant Trust, an organization that supports historical research at the intersection of the church and academy. He is the founder and president of the Davenant Institute. He also teaches philosophy at Moody Bible Institute. He is the author of several articles and book chapters on Richard Hooker and the Reformation period, and serves as editor of the Mercersburg Theology Study Series. He lives in Landrum, S.C., with his wife, Rachel, and four children.