Page - 14 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 2:2

15 | www.limina-graz.eu edition, Isabella Guanzini asks the question whether it is possible to con- sider a contemporary paradigm of freedom between communitas and im- munitas. Guanzini proposes an approach to a solution based on Hannah Arendt’s work. Gunda Werner analyses freedom in its complex relation with sin from Au- gustinus to the modern era from a systematic-historical perspective and offers a reconstruction of historical theology on this subject up to the Sec- ond Vatican Council. According to Werner, this marks the point where the question of freedom shifted from freedom of will to freedom of conscience. Reinhold Esterbauer provides a systematic reflexion on the difficult defini- tion and understanding of freedom of will at a crossroads between neu- robiological preconditions, philosophical approaches and religious experi- ence. Here, the ambivalent character of religious freedom shaped by both violence and hope becomes visible. Laurens ten Kate reveals the strategies employed by liberal societies to give sense to the world after the death of God. He believes that liberal traditions create sense beneath concrete plural religiosity and supports this with philosophical positions that link freedom to imagination. Hildegard Wustmans presents a pastoral-theological perspective that puts spiritual abuse as a violation of the right to self-determination and “deri- sion of freedom” in focus. She puts forwards pastoral and organisational- theoretical measures to prevent such misconduct in future. Franz Winter investigates freedom in Islam and analyses the contrast be- tween human free will and the will and omnipotence of God in the Quran. He highlights historical contexts and looks at theories and thinkers of the Islamic tradition. Three articles deal with psychosocial and economic elements that reveal the fragility and potential illusion of the experience of freedom. The so- ciologist Monica Martinelli analyses the current techno-economic system and the notion of freedom it is based on. She aims to offer a new way of thinking about freedom at a time were the legitimacy of institutions is in question, socio-cultural and political frameworks are being restructured, and markets are increasingly liberalised. Massimo Recalcati examines Jacques Lacan’s “discourse of the capital- ist”, which is the result of the historical affirmation of capitalism, from a psychoanalytical perspective. He demonstrates that this discourse is fun- damentally based on dismissing an experience of scarcity, but instead is connected to an individualistic and consumption-oriented idea of freedom that weakens social bonds. LIMINA 2:2 | The spectre of freedom | Editorial