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Contributors to this book analyze areas of Martin Luther's and Lutheran theology that have otherwise been neglected or underrepresented in the five hundred years since the Reformation. They constructively widen the scope of Luther and Lutheran theology by viewing both from the perspectives of the "subaltern," those whose voices are barely or rarely heard. The book formulates an inclusive Lutheran theology that reaches out but does not close out.
The book's sections address "Precarious Life," from Luther's own precarious existence as an outlaw under a death sentence to other precarious life situations seen from various Lutheran perspectives; "Body and Gender," addressing different aspects of gender and sexuality from new angles; "Women and Sexual Abuse," focusing on present-day problems of abuse in an encounter with Luther's exegesis of biblical "texts of terror"; and "Economy, Equality, and Equity," addressing Lutheran views on economy and equality that break new ground regarding common goods and the Anthropocene.
List of contents
Foreword Musimbi Kanyoro
List of Abbreviations
Introduction Else Marie Wiberg Pedersen
Section 1: Precarious Life
1. Luther as the Subaltern Precarious: The Banned, Excluded, and Outlawed Eleutherius Else Marie Wiberg Pedersen
2. Luther against Luther: Freedom Theology and anti-Jewish exegesis
Kirsi Stjerna
3. Eschata, the Kin-dom of God in a Time of Presentism, Patriarchy, and Neo-Nationalism: Writing back to Luther through Hannah Arendt and Judith Butler
Elisabeth Gerle
4. Theology Behind the Wall
Peter Lodberg
5. The Heterotopic Creation: A Short Contribution to a Subaltern Ecclesiology
Trygve Wyller
Section 2: Body and Gender
6. A Word of the Word for Our Hearts: Embracing Multiple-Gendered God-Language with Luther
Mary Streufert
7. The Queer Body-Mind in Luther's Theology: From Subaltern Sodomite to Embodied Imago Dei
Mary Elise Lowe
8. Manly Women, Feminine Men: Mere Exceptions or Signs of Inclusive Thinking? Alternative Readings of Martin Luther's Anthropology
Sini Mikkola
9. Wild Spaces of Neighbor-Centered Christian Freedom in Subaltern Contexts of Gender, Race, and Illness
Deanna A. Thompson
10. Theology by Demand: A Queer and De-Colonial Perspective on Lutheran Theology
André Musskopf
Section 3: Women and Sexual Abuse
11. Making Connections: Dinah, Luther, and Indian Women
Monica Jyotsna Melanchthon
12. Let's Be Loud! God in Context of Sexual Violence and Abuse of Power
Arnfridur Gudmundsdottir
13. Grace Alone! But Her Sins Are Neither Forgiven Nor Forgotten: An Alternative Indian Feminist Reading of the Muted-Sinful Woman in Luke 7
Surekha Nelavala
14. The Subaltern's Witness: Examining Luther's Explanation to the Eighth Commandment in Light of Clergy Sexual Abuse Claims
Kayko Driedger Hesslein
Section 4: Economy, Equality, and Equity
15. God against God: Cross as Tribulation
Vitor Westhelle
16. Cracking the Ice: Subaltern and Lutheran Principles of Knowledge
Marit Trelstad
17. From "the Common Good" to "Common Goods:" Unearthing a Community Chest of Cosmological Consequence
Allen Jorgenson
18. Genus precarious: Luther in the Anthropocene
Terra Rowe
About the author
Else Marie Wiberg Pedersen is professor of systematic theology at Aarhus University.
Summary
This book analyzes Martin Luther and Lutheran theology from the perspective of the subaltern, particularly in the areas of gender and sexuality, economics, and social justice.
