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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
In the concern for inclusiveness, one area that has been largely neglected is the discrimination against left-handedness. This paper looks briefly at some of the scriptural and social stigmas and implications attached to left-handedness. Using Luther's theology of the cross as its basis, a left-handed theology is introduced. Arguing for the need for a theology which focuses on those who are marginalized, a left-handed theology offers a model whereby God's left hand offers to those who are in “minority” positions grace and solidarity. This is contrasted to the right hand of God, which portrays a God of power, strength, and triumphalism. The hand of God which one chooses to relate to determines, then, how one does theology, and how a theological inclusiveness is developed.
1 See the excellent article on the language roots and comparisons of the left and right in Latin and other languages in Heumann, Karl F. and Wellisch, Hans H., “Sinister Dexterity,” Verbatim 14/2 (Autumn 1987): 1–3.Google Scholar For a brief description of euonomos, see Moulton, Harold K., ed., The Analytical Greek Lexicon Revised (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1978), 178.Google Scholar
2 Some myths or legends regarding the Sabbat and initiation rites included, among other things, a signing of a pact with the devil, which was “… written with the bloude of the left thumbe. Then doth the Divell mark him …” (Heywood, Thomas, The Hierarchy of the Blessed Angels [London: Printed by Adam Islip, 1635], 472Google Scholar, as noted by Davies, R. Trevor, Four Centuries of Witch Belief [New York: Benjamin Blom, 1972], 115–16).Google Scholar See also Russel, Jeffrey Burton, Witchcraft in the Middle Ages (Ithaca: Gornell University Press, 1972), 249–55.Google Scholar
3 For some good examples, see Heumann, and Wellisch, , “Sinister Dexterity,” 2.Google Scholar
4 The most succinct statement of Luther's theology of the cross is “The Heidelberg Disputation” in Luther's Works (St. Louis: Concordia, and Philadelphia: Fortress, 1957), 31:39–70.Google Scholar
5 Luther's Works, 22:102–25;Google Scholar 31:52-53.
6 Moltmann, Jürgen, The Crucified God (New York: Harper and Row, 1974), 205.Google Scholar See also Sobrino, Jon, Christology at the Crossroads (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1978), 208;Google Scholar and Hall, Douglas John, Lighten Our Darkness: Toward an Indigenous Theology of the Cross (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1976), 121.Google Scholar
7 Sobrino, , Christology at the Crossroads, 225–26.Google Scholar
8 Luther's Works, 31:53.Google Scholar
9 Ruether, Rosemary Radford, To Change the World (London: SCM, 1981), 45–56.Google Scholar
10 Daly, Mary, Beyond God the Father (Boston: Beacon, 1973), 19.Google Scholar
11 Cone, James H., Black Theology and Black Power (New York: Seabury, 1969), 68.Google Scholar
12 Sobrino, , Christology at the Crossroads, 225–26.Google Scholar
13 Luther's Works, 31:52 (Theses 19-20).Google Scholar
14 Heumann, and Wellisch, , “Sinister Dexterity,” 1.Google Scholar
15 Luther's Works, 21:339–49.Google Scholar
16 Morton, Nelle, The Journey Is Home (Boston, Beacon, 1985), 151.Google Scholar
17 Cone, , Black Theology and Black Power, 68.Google Scholar This same theme is also found in Woods, Donald, Biko, rev. ed. (New York: Henry Holt, 1987), 164–68.Google Scholar D. J. Hall is also aware of this via negativa in Luther when he writes, “the gospel for [Luther] is not the good news of deliverance from the experience of negation so much as it is the permission and command to enter into that experience with hope” (Lighten Our Darkness, 123).
18 Hordern, William, Experience and Faith: The Significance of Luther for Understanding Today's Experiential Religions (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1983), 86.Google Scholar
19 A succinct summary of this option for socialism is the “Declaration of the 80,” prepared by the group “Christians for Socialism” and found in Eagleson, John, ed., Christians and Socialism (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1975), 3–6.Google Scholar
20 The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, ed. Buttrick, George A. (Nashville: Abingdon, 1962), 3:108.Google Scholar