Information in English

The first day shall be devoted to exploring the terrain of freedom and liberation. Philosophically, freedom is central to understanding human beings, their development, as well as to modern thinking and the political order (rights to freedom). Biblically, the divine liberation (Exodus) is the basic date of Israel’s history. Freedom in Christ is the basis of Christian spirituality. We will therefore ask ourselves: How are these diverse ideas connected? What existential and social significance do they have for us today?

The mind of the person is naturally under measure and limitation. Nevertheless, she has the mysterious possibility of “raising herself above herself in personal freedom and absorbing a higher life”. The divine spirit penetrates into this possibility. She does not explode the finite spirit into infinity, but she is also in no way bound „to the measure of herto whom she gives hermself“. Thus the person does not himself become divine, he does not disappear in immeasurable size, but remains himself, in an unprecedentedly expanded form. It can even be said that in the person, by virtue of this free opening to the divine, creation is mediated upwards. Physical, plant and animal formations combine in the human being to form the unity of a being and at the same time open to the divine life.

A person develops their freedom in the context of their social life: in the context of culture, morals, economic and political regulations and finally the law. Such „regulators“ have always been understood as oppressive – is that correct or is that exaggerated? The following questions are presented in the introductory lecture: How does an ethos of a group of people or even of society as a whole develop from the convictions of individuals? And when, under what conditions and with what methods of approach can one formulate a law (a nomos) from a practiced ethos that then affects everyone? How should one act when a law proves to be wrong? What is our responsibility? These are all basic questions of moral philosophy, ethics and legal philosophy. In the seminar we will try together to answer these using Edith Stein’s writings. In the analysis of her thoughts on anthropology and political philosophy, as well as her individual letters, we see the example of Edith Stein as a thinker for peace and to show the relevance of her approaches for the modern view of civil disobedience.

Some, from a psyychological or anthropological perspective postulate, due to organic determinism and cultural constraints, freedom in making one’s own decisions is an illusion. So, are we incapable of making free decisions? Edith Stein offers a way out of this dilemma. She writes that truly free decisions are possible when one knows their inner self well. Inner recognition and awareness are prerequisites for a targeted response to one’s own needs and the requirements of the world. Responsibility is a freely decided, conscious response to the world.

„You were called to freedom“ (Gal 5:13), writes the apostle Paul to the churches in Galatia. At the same time, he warns them to use freedom correctly. What was relevant in Asia Minor in the first century has still retained its meaning over the centuries: Freedom does not only have theorectical significance, but also, under various conditions, to find concrete ways and forms of freedom for living. But what happens when theological content and spiritual practices meet the latest technological developments? When digital twins and augmented reality encounter the creation from Psalm 8? What risks, challenges, but also opportunities for freedom arise in the digital reality of life and work? How can digitization be used to responsibly shape the professional world and the climate? A theologian and a technologist discuss and offer insights, intriguing questions, suprising experiences, and examples from the Middle East to Greenland.