Bodies Now and Otherwise

Theology of the Cross and Trans Experience

Abstract

Martin Luther’s theologia crucis can be seen through a postmodern lens as an articulation of the limits of bodies as signifiers, as Jesus’ body simultaneously reveals and hides divine identity. Likewise, transgender embodiment is often experienced as somehow contradictory, the site of both euphoria and dysphoria; a failed, contested, or ambiguous signification. This paper reads Luther’s theological claims together with contemporary trans theory and narratives toward a theological conception of the polyvalent and dynamic character of embodiment, which recognizes the deep personal and social significance of the body and its shapes while insisting that identity, value, and personhood cannot be straightforwardly read off a body but can only be perceived by an orientation of the heart. In this way, Luther’s articulation of a God revealed in the body of God’s “opposite” can provide an epistemological opening to see all bodies differently.