Freiheit und Menschenwürde

Martin W. Ramb and Holger Zaborowski (eds.)
Freiheit und Menschenwürde
oder: Was Europa zusammenhält
//
Freedom and human dignity
or: What holds Europe together

(series: Koordinaten Europas; no. 2)
Wallstein publishing house, 2024
ISBN 978-3-8353-5696-2
273 pages
22 EUR (D) / 22,70 EUR (A)
(also available as an e-book)

What does freedom actually mean? Is man free at all? To what extent has the experience of freedom shaped Europe? What are the roots of the idea of freedom? Which institutions guarantee freedom? Where are the main threats to freedom today – in times of rapid technological and scientific progress, economic globalisation, numerous domestic and foreign policy challenges, diverse transformations in culture, religions and world views? Similar questions arise with regard to human dignity, which is often invoked but also often neglected and violated. What does it actually mean that all people have this dignity? How can it be justified? How does it manifest itself? Do animals also have dignity? Has the idea of human dignity not only lost its significance in fact, but can it no longer be convincingly justified?

The questions that arise in today's situation with regard to freedom and human dignity are not purely academic matters. They concern the concrete reality of life, current social developments, religious and ideological positions and urgent political decisions. It is not only the future of Europe that depends on these questions being asked in Europe - and how they are answered. They concern the "essence", the heart of Europe.

By examining the questions of freedom and human dignity from various perspectives, this volume aims to make a small contribution to this necessary self-understanding – in the hope that freedom and human dignity will not be forgotten, but will be recognised in their fundamental importance and lasting relevance for peaceful and good coexistence in Europe and beyond.

This anthology continues the Coordinates of Europe series, which began with the volume Solidarity and Responsibility and which will address further Coordinates of Europe. The aim is to recover and recall the centrepieces of European identity from different perspectives in Europe's many crises and to offer new orientation.

The editors:
Martin W. Ramb, born in 1969, studied Philosophy, Andragogy and Theology in Vallendar and Bonn. As retired director of the education authority, he heads the Department of Religious Education, Media and Culture at the Episcopal Ordinariate of Limburg and is editor-in-chief of the educational magazine "Eulenfisch".

Holger Zaborowski, born in 1974, studied Philosophy, Theology, Latin and Greek in Freiburg i. Br., Basel and Cambridge and received his doctorate in Oxford and Siegen. After interim positions in Freiburg, Washington, D.C., and Vallendar, he has been Professor of Philosophy at the University of Erfurt since 2020.

The authors:
Kathi Beier, Christoph Bohr, Thomas Brose, Ferdinand Friess, Christiana Idika, Ralf Knoblauch, Julia Knop, Ute-Lonny-Platzbecker, Ulrike Lynn, Marko Martin, Thomas Menges, Robert Müller, Martin W. Ramb, Johannes Schaber, Thomas Schumacher, Ursula Schumacher, Gesine Schwan, Thomas Sojer, Andrea Stoll, Holger Zaborowski, Eduard Zwierlein.