Page - 13 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 2:2

14 | www.limina-graz.eu ers”) is directly linked to a subject that has internalised the market model and assimilated to it. Paradoxically, the rhetoric of lived freedom or free spontaneity without constraints is systematically questioned in current scientific discourses. The result is a symmetric and antithetical narrative where freedom does not follow an anthropological requirement but represents the unknowable end point of causal chains or a variable in a complex mechanism. Funda- mentally – as already established by the masters of suspicion – freedom is seen as a myth that needs to be demystified. ̟ What questions around the term freedom arise from an anthropol- ogy, law, social and natural sciences perspective in a current con- text? ̟ What are the anthropological, social and theological consequences of this precarious freedom? ̟ How can a “positive liberty” be developed in the age of the imagi- nary? This edition of LIMINA investigates these issues starting with the question of freedom and liberation in the Old and New Testaments. A paradigmatic experience can be found in the Exodus story. Irmtraud Fischer highlights the individual and collective liberation from slavery and genocide, which reso- nates in a way that closely connects and transforms humans, peoples and God. Thomas Söding examines freedom in Paul. He points out that Paul’s writing about freedom of conscience and faith contrasted between theonomy and autonomy offers a starting point for a discussion based on the belief that the God of Jesus Christ affirms human freedom. According to Paul, a person can find their freedom in God if they follow their conscience and follow His word. In antiquity, freedom could only be understood and practiced within the context of a political community, whereas modern freedom emerges as an individual freedom that increasingly distances itself from socio-political structures. In her essay, introducing the systematical contributions of this LIMINA 2:2 | The spectre of freedom | Editorial A new model of freedom based on the paradigm of the object – or an illusion?