Luther's Topology: Creatio Ex Nihilo and the Cultivation of the Concept of Place in Martin Luther's theology

This article contends that, although L uther does develop a fascinating concept of the human subject within his writings, he does not make this subjectivity methodologically basic. Instead, L uther locates human subjectivity within a more fundamental framework of “place”—a concept he develops over a span of thirty years, maturing from its earliest appearances, as a corollary of the theologia crucis , into a more expansive framework for his later thinking. After briefly sketching the concept of place within L uther's theology through to its apex—the G enesisvorlesung delivered in the final ten years of L uther's life—the subsequent prominence of the doctrine of creation, particularly the language of creatio ex nihilo , is examined with a view to showing how L uther's theology might be re‐placed more constructively within contemporary thinking.