Allowing the Other to be the Other

A Reading of Luther as a Theologian of Otherness

Abstract

This article articulates Luther’s theology as a “theology of otherness†that serves as a critique of “the dominant logic of modernity.†In conceptualizing the dominant logic of modernity, the author utilizes the work of the political philosopher Iris Marion Young, who argues that contemporary forms of political and social oppression are undergirded by “the logic of identity.†After introducing Young’s conceptualizing of “the logic of identity,†the article contends that Luther’s theology provides ground for theological and ethical resistance to these forms of oppression. To this end, the author gives a detailed reading of three elements of the Reformer’s theology—Luther’s theology of the cross, Luther’s doctrine of justification, and Luther’s notion of the hiddenness of God—as three elements of a theology of otherness.