I am translating a book for CMRI and I want to know if this strikes anyone as Americanist, because if it is I'm not going to be able to go on translating.
I will give the French just in case anyone reads French, then my translation: "Ce n'est pas la foi seule qui prouve que nous sommes libres, mais encore le sens commun, l'expérience, la raison. La société ne repose que sur cette idée de liberté."
"It's not only the faith which proves that we are free, but common sense, experience, reason. Society has no other basis but this idea of liberty."
It sounds worse out of context, because he isn't talking about abstract "liberty" the way Americans do, but about free will. The context is that we have a penchant to sin, we need grace, but we also have free will -- in other words, it's not political.
He also says that society rests on "this idea" of free will, meaning a specific kind. Surely not the Vatican II kind. He spoke against the French Revolution before. So this is okay, correct? I just need someone to help me through my scruples.