Radical Theology and the Theology of the Cross: A Christian Tradition of Subversion

Introduction

Martin Luther’s theology of the cross though central to the German Reformation did not manage to remain a big influence in the Protestant tradition. Traditions other than Lutheranism sprang up: Calvinism, Anglicanism and soon after that Puritans, Baptists, Methodists and an entire slew of revivalist, holiness and Pentecostal groups joined the choir of the Protestant faith. Luther’s central insight of justification by faith was not lost, but every time a new layer of interpretation was created that obscured its power and dangerous simplicity. Notably, it was detached from its framework of the theology of the cross.

In spite of this forgetfulness, the theology of the cross continued to maintain a marginalized but nonetheless important voice in the bewildering plethora of post-Reformation expressions of religion. But not just religion. Some of the most famous philosophers of our Western tradition have been decisively influenced by Luther’s ideas.

It is a pity that the decrease of importance of the theology of the cross was inversely proportional to the spread of the Reformation faith. Especially when one realizes that the theology of the cross, or theologia crucis, as it is also known, has an impressive pedigree. Indeed Luther’s…