How did the sense of the individual arise in European culture? And why did this sense develop more strongly in the Latin West than in the Greek East, in spite of the fact that some of the earliest reflections on the nature of the person belong to the Orthodox Christian world? In this searching investigation, Stelios Ramfos explores the roots of the modern debate on the person and concludes that the preoccupation of the Byzantine Greeks with eternity inhibited them from developing a fruitful sense of interiority. He argues that, nevertheless, a figure such as Leontius of Byzantium can suggest a way forward if Byzantine theological thinking is revisited in the light of insights derived from the Western philosophical tradition.

In this revised article, the original of which was given at the International Symposium “The Monotheistic Religions and Human Liberties” at the University of Constanta, Romania, Hieromonks Methody and Kirill Zinkovsky examine the various concepts of personal freedom, arguing that a full definition of freedom is impossible without the revelation of God as a unity of three Persons.