The Crux of Theology

The title of this book plays upon the central place a theology of the cross holds in Lutheran theologies, especially lucid 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.

Introduction: 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