Quests for Freedom, Second Edition

This book is the result of intensive, multiyear international and interdisciplinary cooperation. From many perspectives, the book's contributors address themes of freedom and slavery; self-determination and concepts of freedom; God-given and imprinted freedom; freedom as an ethos of belonging and solidarity; and relations between freedom, human rights, and theological orientation.

""Quests for Freedom is a brilliant examination of human freedom from the ancient biblical texts into our age. Written by eminent scholars from around the world, the book is helpfully divided into themes ranging from freedom and domination to the dialects of modernity. Anyone interested in the history of ideas about freedom, as well as contemporary accounts of freedom, will treasure this book.""
--William Schweiker, The University of Chicago

""In this well-orchestrated and briskly-paced volume, nineteen leading theologians offer deep and diverse insights into the conditions, contexts, concepts, and categories of freedom in the Bible, and the liberating implications of these biblical teachings and practices for the ancient world and for our own. This is global interdisciplinary religious scholarship at its best.""
--John Witte, Jr., Director, Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Emory University

""Quests for Freedom assembles a remarkable group of multi-disciplinary voices. The essays both enhance our understanding of freedom and challenge our deep-seated social prejudices that often deny freedom to those on the margins of society. At a moment in history when 'freedom' is increasingly abused for private and nationalistic gain, this collection stands as a reminder of our common humanity, and freedom as a public good.""
--Piet Naude, Professor of Ethics, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

""What is freedom? Quests for Freedom does not only inform on a word that was used and waved as a banner of hope, it reminds the reader of the often bitter experiences of ordinary people with forms of slavery and suppression, old and new, but most important, it explores in an interdisciplinary way the avenues in which freedom not only is a wonderful idea, but becomes reality for ordinary people. Quests for Freedom exemplifies the way contemporary theology should be done: in interdisciplinary cooperation, using the sources of the Christian tradition, critical, realistic, and hopeful.""
--Cornelis van der Kooi, Professor Emeritus Systematic Theology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam


Michael Welker has been a professor of theology at the Universities of Tubingen, Munster, and Heidelberg, and he has frequently been a guest professor in Britain, Canada, and the United States His many authored and edited books include God the Revealed (2014), The Depth of the Human Person (editor, 2014), and Faith in the Living God (second edition with John Polkinghorne, 2018).