Clouds of the Cross in Luther and Kierkegaard: Revelation as Unknowing
Ebook
What do Christians mean when they talk about revelation? What sort of truth do Jesus and the Bible disclose? Knowledge or doctrine, required beliefs or a moral code, the answers Christians give to these questions tend to be objective in form: something they “have” that others lack. In Clouds of the Cross in Luther and Kierkegaard: Revelation as Unknowing, Carl S. Hughes draws on Martin Luther and Søren Kierkegaard—two of the most Christocentric and biblically oriented theologians in history—to suggest a much-needed alternative.
Hughes blends historical, philosophical, and constructive approaches to theology in lively and engaging prose. He spotlights the objectifying tendencies in Luther’s thought that become so influential in modernity, while also finding resources in Luther’s own theology for a very different approach. Then, Hughes turns to Søren Kierkegaard—one of Luther’s fiercest critics and, at the same time, most faithful inheritors. Hughes argues that Kierkegaard carries some of Luther’s most provocative themes further than Luther himself ever dares. The result is a “Kierkegaardian-Lutheran” theology of revelation that resonates with mystical and apophatic theology, resembles art more than information, and transforms lives to incarnate the love of Christ in diverse and ever-changing ways.
Acknowledgments
A Note on References
Prologue
Introduction: A Kierkegaardian-Lutheran Theology of Revelation
I. Revelatory Darkness: Luther on Christ and the Cross
II. The Light of Revelation? The Peril and Promise of Luther on the Bible
III. In a Mirror Dimly: Kierkegaard on Christ and the Cross
IV. Mirrors without End: Kierkegaard on the Bible, Luther, and the Task of Theology
V. In the Whirlwind: Kierkegaard’s Theologies of Suffering
Conclusion
Bibliography
“Clouds of the Cross in Luther and Kierkegaard is indispensable for anyone wanting to understand how Kierkegaard conceives of himself as a theologian and how he understands the task of Christian theology more generally. Carl S. Hughes's insightful analysis is a helpful provocation toward more productive and generative engagement with the biblical text in the twenty-first century than we often see in American Christianity today. Despite Kierkegaard's own shortcomings, Hughes challenges us to read Kierkegaard from the margins and demonstrates how natural this can be.”
“How does one know sacred truth? Is it Luther’s sola scriptura? Or the apophatic tradition of mysticism? Hughes continues his knack for delving into complex theological questions with clarity, skill, and wisdom. He highlights God’s echoes in Elijah’s gentle whisper, Job’s whirlwind, and the enigma of Golgotha as scriptural examples of God’s revelation in a mystical absence. Using Kierkegaard’s dialectic of holding opposites together, Hughes postulates a relational dialectic between the clear light of revelation in scripture and the mystical cloud of unknowing. While our hearts are formed by the guidance of scripture and prayer, Hughes points us to realize that divine wisdom continues to be absorbed even as reach beyond revelation’s assured truth to dwell into the ‘clouds of unknowing.’ For truth is known as we are constantly lured beyond what we know and understand, to the glorious, if mysterious and a little scary, love of God. Hughes bids us follow him”
“This book is a timely corrective to contemporary Christianity polarized between sides that each insist on being right. Christians must opt for love, as Hughes explains on the grounds of a Lutheran theological emphasis on Christ as gift ‘for you.’ The Bible ‘tells me so!’ Hughes weaves biblical interpretation, mysticism, and constructive theology into a powerful theological case for the Beloved Community in which Christians who disagree with each other can work towards being reconciled to each other.”
Carl Hughes offers us an unpretentious, candid, and radically hopeful book about the writing of Christian theology. It shows us how to read for a living, teaching inside the impressive bindings now wrapped around authors like Luther or Kierkegaard. Clouds of the Cross catches these eminent theologians speaking differently for diverse occasions—catches them, that is, thinking as they make new language. Hughes reminds us that Christian theologians are not called to bicker about God or any other topic. They are meant to answer for mysteries.
This book sets free a Lutheran poetics I’ve been waiting for. In Clouds of the Cross, Carl Hughes lovingly beckons us to unsettle dangerous alliances and legacies of revelation, power, and knowledge. With an eye to the negative theological tradition, Hughes’ stagings of Luther and Kierkegaard direct us from false certainty to embody instead the poetry of Mount Sinai, Job’s whirlwind, and Golgotha. Here, in the mystery of revelation, where we might rediscover cloudy unknowns of love. Thanks be for this Luther of the Cloud!
- Title: Clouds of the Cross in Luther and Kierkegaard: Revelation as Unknowing
- Author: Carl S. Hughes
- Publisher: Lexington Books
- Print Publication Date: 2024
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781666951332, 9781666951325, 1666951323, 1666951331
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666951332
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-07-16T04:09:21Z
Carl S. Hughes is associate professor of theology at Texas Lutheran University.