In itself, freedom is empty; it does not exist in and for itself as such. Nor is it a magician's hat, into which one can put or out of which one can pull all kinds of things. Freedom in general does not exist; only the freedom of something, in something, from something, to something, or for something, exists. Freedom is only a predicate, which can be predicated in relation to different concepts or essences, and it is more negative or delimiting than positive in its application.
[Sergius Bulgakov,
The Bride of the Lamb, Boris Jakim, tr., Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI: 2002) p. 125.]
