Bible Stories

As the Christian world divided early in the Middle Ages, both East and West inherited the doctrine of Chalcedon about Christ. In the East it was coloured by a strongly Alexandrian viewpoint. Jesus Christ’s human life was seen more as the arena in which God worked our salvation than as an active agent in bringing it about. Salvation itself was often spoken of as ‘divinization’ — the believer coming to share Christ’s divine nature. The glorified Christ was the focus of worship; monasticism and mysticism flourished. All these factors contributed to a neglect of Christ’s real humanity, which in turn probably contributed to the growth of devotion to other human figures, such as Mary _ and the martyrs.

For various reasons, Western churchmen in the Middle Ages showed greater interest in the humanity of Jesus, The influence of Augustine (died 430) was enormous. He had emphasized that Christ became our saviour through his humility and humiliation as a man.

According to Anselm, Christ paid off mankind’s debt to God, a debt that was due because our sin had robbed God of his honour. This theory made Christ’s human life essential to the achievement of redemption. Abelard (died 1142) even taught that the purpose of Jesus Christ’s incarnation was to set forth a perfect example of love in human life.

Influential leaders in Catholic devotion also directed attention to Christ’s humanity. Bernard of Clairvaux, in the twelfth century, preached and meditated on the love of Christ, particularly in his death on the cross. To follow naked the naked Christ‘ was the aim of Francis of Assisi. He highlighted the simplicity of Jesus‘ life, and his care for lepers and other outcasts. Thomas a Kempis in the fifteenth century wrote The Imitation of Christ, which has become a widely-read presentation of the love and holiness of Christ.

Yet among the Schoolmen, the important church teachers of the late Middle Ages, the significance of Jesus‘ human experience was overshadowed by clever speculation. Medieval Catholicism as a whole too easily lost sight of the human Christ. Superstitions about the magical power of his body and blood dominated the mass. Reverence for Mary and the saints partly compensated for— and encouraged — this one-sided view of Christ.

Christ in the Lord’s Supper

The Protestant Reformers accepted the teaching of the early councils and creeds about Christ, but they restored to the heart of the faith the living and saving Jesus Christ of the New Testament. They related Christ’s person more closely to his work as redeemer, and placed a new emphasis on the historical Jesus of the Gospels. This led in time to a fresh distinction between Christ’s ’state of humiliation’ on earth and his subsequent ’state of exaltation’ in glory.

Martin Luther preached a ‘theology of the cross’. He identified closely with Jesus‘ experiences and struggles as a man. Faith in Christ, he held, must hold fast to the lowly, suffering Christ, and not speculate about his heavenly being. As Melanchthon once wrote in criticism of the Schoolmen, ‘to know Christ is to know his benefits, not to contemplate his natures and the modes of his incarnation.’

But the person of Christ did become a controversial issue among the Reformers, in their disagreement over the way in which Christ was present in the Lord’s Supper. Luther believed that Christ’s body and blood were really present in the bread and wine of the Supper. This was possible because they shared in Christ’s divine nature, which is present everywhere. Luther accepted the Alexandrian view that there took place a sharing or interchange between the powers of Christ’s divinity and humanity. Zwingli opposed Luther. He held that if Christ’s manhood was true manhood, it could only be in one place at a time — now beside the Father’s throne in heaven.

John Calvin aimed to hold together Christ’s person and work. Jesus Christ was prophet, priest and king — this was his ‘threefold office’. In Christ ‘God so received what is ours as to transfer to us what is his’. Unlike Luther, Calvin rejected any blurring of the distinction between Christ’s two natures. Luther seemed to confuse them, but Calvin contrasted them. Nevertheless they were united in the incarnation. It was through the Spirit that Christ was present in the Lord’s Supper. Calvin also taught, like some of the early fathers, that, even during Christ’s earthly life, the Son did not cease to be active throughout the universe as the Word of the Father.

In the turmoil of the Reformation, one minor current of Protestant teaching rejected both the trinity and Christ’s divinity. This arose chiefly among Italian exiles. It produced Socinianism or Unitarianism, which was strong in Poland. Like the error condemned in the early church, it understood Jesus Christ simply and solely as a man empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Unitarianism (which like Arianism regards the Father alone as God) has survived to the present day, and has been given a new lease of life by Jehovah’s Witnesses.

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