Christian Renatus Von Zinzendorf - Christel As Christ's Representative

Christel As Christ's Representative

The name Christian Renatus, Christ Returns, implied that Christ lived again in Christel. This, as with so many of Zinzendorf's beliefs and acts, was based upon his father's words: “I live no more; he lives in me. I speak no more; he speaks in me. When you speak with me, you speak with him. When you have love for me, so too you have love for him, and when you hate me, so too you hate him, and when you have a word from me, so too you have it from him.” Seeing Christ in Christian's eyes is a theme from the period in poetry, painting and engraving. An engraving complete with his portrait states that one can see the departed Christ by looking at Christel's forehead, meaning his eyes. A portrait of him now in the Moravian Archives in Herrnhut, Germany, includes the words Gebrochne Augen(broken eyes), again referring to seeing Christ at the moment of death in Christian's eyes, or at the moment of his completed sacrifice.

The idea of Christ living in another was not uncommon in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is a fundamental belief shared with the Quakers and Shakers who also had roots in Pietism and the indwelling of Christ.