Description
Book SynopsisThe title of this book plays upon the central place a theology of the cross holds in Lutheran theologies, especially potent in Luther's Heidelberg Disputation (1518). The 500th anniversary of this document coincided with the 70th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations wherein the preamble points to a global aspiration of a common good shaped by freedom, justice and peace. This book is located at the intersection of these two themes, asserting that the cross has material content in being the means by which Christ in suffering solidarity with individuals, communities, and the cosmos advances freedom, justice, and peace. Employing a variety of methods, and exploring a broad range of geographic locales, the contributors illumine the misuse of Reformation themes and offer a corrective in service of a common good that is publicly accountable and theologically sound. The book thereby explores how contemporary Lutheran theology has utility both for analyzing injustice and for advancing justice in local as well as global contexts.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Crux of the Matter
Kristen E. Kvam
1.Already Freed, Christians Should Serve (Cake): Religious Freedom Claims & Christian Privilege
Caryn D. Riswold
2.A Lutheran View of Conscience: Bound and Free, Constrained and Embodied
Mary Elise Lowe
3.The Obligations We Bear With One Another: A Reply to Lowe and Riswold on Questions of Conscience, Domination, and Love
Anthony Bateza
4.Retrieving Luther’s Critique of Idolatry for Our Fragmented World: Whiteness, Greed and the Environment
Benjamin Taylor
5.A Non-Universal Lutheran Theology: Contextual Theological Process in Namibia
Marit A. Trelstad
6.Variegated Lutheran Theology in the Context of 21st Century Idols
Mary Philip aka Joy
7.Retrieving Luther’s Theology of Freedom for a Contemporary Ethic of Heteronomy
Robert Overy-Brown
8.Crux of the Matter: Theology of the Cross and the Modern Extractive Imaginary
Terra Schwerin Rowe
9.Crux in the Balance—In Response to Rowe and Overy-Brown
Allen G. Jorgenson
10.Luther, Politics, and the Production of Theological Knowledge
Christine Helmer
