Lexington Books / Fortress Academic
Pages: 368
•
Trim: 6⅜ x 9
978-1-9787-0381-0 • Hardback • September 2019 • $147.00 • (£113.00)
978-1-9787-0382-7 • eBook • September 2019 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Else Marie Wiberg Pedersen is professor of systematic theology at Aarhus University (Denmark).
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
Editor Else Marie Wiberg Pedersen introduces this excellent collection of articles by explaining that the aim of the volume “is to widen the scope of Luther’s and Lutheran theology by discussing Luther and Lutheran theology as perceived from the perspective of the subaltern, those who are never or rarely heard. The hope is to reach both those often ignored and those by whom they are ignored.” The book does just this. . . While there is, of course, an ethical imperative to listen to our neighbor for our neighbor’s sake, these essays make it clear that this listening will expand our own understanding and help us work towards common goods for more people and more of creation. . . . The eighteen essays in this book are all valuable, each putting forward a new center for the reader, putting forward a new group that might have previously been considered “other” or “subaltern." . . However the reader sees herself, she will find new insight, new neighbors, and new understanding by reading The Alternative Luther.
— Journal of Lutheran Ethics
The Alternative Luther brings together scholars from around the globe who present Luther's theology and its applications to precarious people, especially the occupied, the poor, the abused, and the othered. The result is a book that offers Luther's work as revolutionary and healing to an audience that sees itself as precarious or allies itself with those who are subaltern. . . . Pedersen's edited volume has much to teach those outside of Lutheran circles about Luther and his subaltern theological perspective. . . the volume has much to say to Lutherans about the need to open the conversation to wider and wider circles of readers and interlocutors. I commend this book to Luther scholars, students of subaltern studies, and to those new to both areas.
— Dialog: A Journal Of Theology
A rich ensemble of leading Lutheran scholars situated in different continents engage their political, social-economic and cultural locations to give voice to the subaltern and crack open existing binaries due to gender, race, class, caste, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, and speciesism. What emerges is a vision of an inclusive Lutheran theology reflected through a kaleidoscope of creative difference. An excellent, path-breaking, and timely book that is a ‘must’ for those interested in engaging Lutheran theology in face of the challenges of today’s world.— Hilda P. Koster, Concordia College (Moorhead, MN)