“Peace,Peace … Cross,Cross”

This article explores Luther's theology of the cross, based on his often overlooked comments in Explanations of the Disputes concerning the Power of Indulgences from 1518, Luther's defense of the Ninety-Five Theses. The article dismisses approaches that reduce this topic to one theology among many or claim more for it than theology can deliver. In explaining Thesis 15, Luther grounds theology of the cross in human experience of suffering and abandonment. In Thesis 58, he derives this theology from God's alien and proper work and contrasts it to the “illusory theology” of Aristotelian scholastics. The theology of the cross does not bless suffering but proclaims the God who declares the nothingness of suffering and death to be life and grace. The Christian lives and prays under suffering and cross and yet possesses ears filled with promises of resurrection in Christ.