{"id":1393,"date":"2014-11-15T19:42:53","date_gmt":"2014-11-15T19:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/?p=1393"},"modified":"2020-10-28T20:02:24","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T20:02:24","slug":"rupturing-eschatology-divine-glory-and-the-silence-of-the-cross-fortress-press-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/rupturing-eschatology-divine-glory-and-the-silence-of-the-cross-fortress-press-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Rupturing Eschatology: Divine Glory and the Silence of the Cross (Fortress Press, 2014)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[1] Along the way, I\u2019ve learned that the best stuff of a book is often stashed away at the bottom of the page in the footnotes, delectable treats hidden a bit like an almond at the bottom of a bowl of Christmas rice pudding.  In this way, Eric Trozzo\u2019s book <em>Rupturing Eschatology: Divine Glory and the Silence of the Cross<\/em> serves up dessert.<\/p>\n<p>[2] By no means do I suggest that the book proper is a flimsy meal, one that doesn\u2019t fill up a person in its own right.  It\u2019s rather that the delight of detecting the almonds of Trozzo\u2019s writing reveals that the entire meal causes the reader to root around in the text, to discover all the morsels of thought and insight strewn about, and to see that the whole spread ties together and does not disappoint.<\/p>\n<p>[3] Trozzo tackles a theme that has not been absent from recent theological reflection, this \u201cthin tradition,\u201d as Douglas John Hall has named it, the theology of the cross.  J\u00fcrgen Moltmann was the first to broadly re-introduce Luther\u2019s phrase into regular consideration about its meaning and import, and Hall was but one of many to continue to advance the idea that the theology of the cross was neither incidental to Luther nor to the life of a Christian, but is rather essential to both.<\/p>\n<p>[4] But Trozzo takes the idea in a new direction. In the first four chapters, Trozzo engages Luther, Moltmann, Jacob Boehme, Paul Tillich, and John Caputo, finding common themes and divergences between them all.  As is fitting, he uses Luther as the basis for the conversation, but hones Luther\u2019s\u2014and these other theologians\u2019\u2014thoughts for a new time.<\/p>\n<p>[5] In this tome, Trozzo seeks to develop a theology of the cross that, while anchored in a tradition (thin or not) embraces the post-modern era\u2019s comfort with\u2014or at least awareness of\u2014ambiguity. To do this, he takes on some sacred cows of both Lutheran and, more broadly, Protestant thought.  For example, he is not content with Gerhard Forde\u2019s reduction of the theology of the cross to matters of personal salvation, nor is he comfortable with what he perceives to be Moltmann\u2019s exclusion both of uncertainty and the possibility of uncertain resolution.<\/p>\n<p>[6] To accomplish his hope of engaging various takes on the theology of the cross, Trozzo makes ample use of questions.  Anyone who has written a paper for academic purposes (and this is a re-purposed dissertation) knows the Art of the Rhetorical Question. However, one gets the sense that Trozzo is not using questions in a manipulative manner.  Instead, the reader realizes that he is honestly carrying forth his curiosity into his writing. He is really wondering out loud, and makes these questions shared.<\/p>\n<p>[7] His humility is also evidenced in his broader theology.  Trozzo rebels against the simple phrase \u201cGod is Good, all the time,\u201d and seems to be more comfortable simply saying, \u201cGod is God.\u201d  Moments, that is, and certainly as any given moment is occurring, can\u2019t be decisively assured to be good or bad <em>an sich<\/em>.  \u201cMy aim,\u201d he says, \u201cis to find a theology of the cross that affirms the uncertainty and ambiguity not just of the world as it is but also in what is to come,\u201d (153).<\/p>\n<p>[8] A few minor critiques: although his Table of Contents seems to reveal a theological survey that is dishearteningly male-oriented, in fact his last chapter, and therefore the bulk of his own theological claim, is filled with work by female theologians: Sigridur Gudmarsdottir, Pheme Perkins, Marie Noonan Sabin, Mary-Jane Rubenstein, and Serene Jones make more than cameo appearances.  It would have been a mark of respect to highlight these women in the beginning overview of his book.  Asian voices were lacking, not least of all a nod to Kazoh Kitamori, whose contribution to the history of the consideration of the theology of the cross would have been helpful even to Trozzo\u2019s point.  Too, although inexpressibly tedious to create, a scripture and subject index helps the reader make further connections, and in that way helps the author complete his task of making a point.<\/p>\n<p>[9] In the end, the point that Trozzo wishes to make is this: using the gospel of Mark as a textual basis, the theology of the cross could rather better be understood as a theology of the <em>silence <\/em>of the cross.  Jesus cried out on the cross and was met with silence, and those who yet suffer cry out and are met with silence. The women left the risen Jesus in silence, and resurrection\u2014an inexpressibly impossible event\u2014cracks open a silent space still where we might discover \u201chaunting hope for the coming of the resurrected Christ.\u201d We meet God\u2019s silence, he says, on the cross, whereas behind it, we meet that of the haunting Christ. <\/p>\n<p>[10] In this way, his theology of the cross seems to be a form of a Holy Saturday, an acknowledgment that death is real and abysmal and absurd, and also that there must be something lurking through and in it, even to the degree that we find ourselves throwing ourselves into the abyss in hope of it. <\/p>\n<p>[11] Trozzo closes with words that reflect both the tenaciousness of his thesis and his humility before the mysteries of God, \u201c&#8230;it is precisely here, in the soundless sounds of uncertainty, that we may sound our faith and muster our hope in the im-possible glory of God, a glory whereby God\u2019s revelation is made real in the world.  But only undecidably.\u201d  (179).<\/p>\n<p>And there, of course, is an almond for every reader to savor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u200bEric Trozzo, Rupturing Eschatology: Divine Glory and the Silence of the Cross. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014).\u200b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rupturing Eschatology: Divine Glory and the Silence of the Cross (Fortress Press, 2014) - Journal of Lutheran Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/rupturing-eschatology-divine-glory-and-the-silence-of-the-cross-fortress-press-2014\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rupturing Eschatology: Divine Glory and the Silence of the Cross (Fortress Press, 2014) - Journal of Lutheran Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u200bEric Trozzo, Rupturing Eschatology: Divine Glory and the Silence of the Cross. 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