According to Dei Verbum, exegetes have a dual task: they must seek to determine the meaning of biblical texts within their historical context, but they must also read Scripture “in the spirit in which it was written.” This means they must attend to the “unity of the whole of Scripture,” the “analogy of faith,” and the “living tradition of the whole Church.” The interplay between these tasks touches on fundamental questions of hermeneutics and ecclesiology: Church, truth, inspiration, communication, meaning and reception. This work calls for dialogue between exegesis and systematic theology. It draws Catholic theology into ecumenical dialogue and demands engagement with interreligious and political contexts.

Alongside the co-editorship of Dr Aleksandra Brand from the Chair of New Testament Exegesis, several researchers from the Faculty of Theology have contributed to the anthology or participated in the project in other capacities.

In his contribution, “The Truth of Freedom,” Professor Robert Vorholt addresses one of the central themes of Pauline theology in relation to hermeneutical and ecclesiological questions: the freedom of all believers. It is notable that almost all occurrences of the term eleutheria and its cognates in the New Testament are found in the authentic proto-Pauline letters. Yet the apostle’s thought does not develop in a vacuum. The theological and cultural foundations of his concept of freedom lie in Old Testament and Hellenistic traditions, which Paul reinterprets through his distinctly Christocentric lens. According to the argument, the testimony of Holy Scripture to God and to the nature of the Church must remain rooted in this freedom.

Dr Aleksandra Brand’s contribution, “Hermeneutics of Testimony,” examines the historical dimensions of the formation of confessions, placing exegetical analysis of the term within the framework of historical-theoretical approaches to the concept of reconstruction.

The volume has been published by Herder Verlag in the series Herders Biblische Studien (vol. 102) under the title Die Heilige Schrift in der katholischen Kirche / Holy Scripture in the Catholic Church. This interdisciplinary and international project explores the role of Holy Scripture in theology, the Church and politics. Another member of the Faculty, Professor Ursula Schumacher, also contributed to the project, which has its origins in a conference held in 2021.

Aleksandra Brand, Aaron Pidel, Thomas Söding (eds.)
Die Heilige Schrift in der katholischen Kirche/Holy Scripture in the Catholic Church
Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 2025
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