Middle Ages To The Reformation
While the concept of Kyrios dominated the Christology of the Apostolic Age, an important supplementary element emerged in the Middle Ages. Based on the influences of Anselm of Canterbury, Bernard of Clairvaux and women mystics, the "tender image of Jesus" as a friend and a source of love and comfort was developed. This contrasted with the images of Jesus as the Lord and as the key to eventual salvation based on his sacrifice at Calvary. The Franciscan approach to popular piety strengthened this friendly image. According to Archbishop Rowan Williams, this made an important impact within the Christian ministry by allowing Christians to feel the living presence of Jesus as a loving figure "who is always there to harbor and nurture those who turn to him for help and take delight in his presence".
The Middle Ages, between the fifth and 15th centuries, ushered in three new aspects of Christology: monastic, popular and academic. The spiritual and monastic perspectives were due to Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Abelard and Bernard of Clairvaux, each focusing on a different variation of that theme. The popular piety championed by the Franciscans led to a more widespread appreciation of Christology from the Middle Ages onwards. At the same time, European universities embarked on a systematic and scholarly approach to Christology, with Thomas Aquinas being the key figure in that arena.
Some key theological figures in this period, such as Saint Augustine or John Calvin, never wrote specific works on Christology, yet modern scholars have attempted to extract Christological insights from their works, e.g. the study of Theocentricism in the writings of Augustine and the analysis of Christ as "king, priest and prophet" in the writings of Calvin.
During the Middle Ages, many of the conflicts between Scripture and tradition were resolved through the construction of theological arguments, and were presented in terms of summae, which summed up complete presentations of discussions that led to knowledge. The apex of these in the 13th century was provided by Saint Thomas Aquinas. His Summa Theologiae presented the first systematic Christology that consistently resolved a number of the existing issues. In his Christology from above, Aquinas also championed the principle of perfection of Christ, namely that in every human sense, Jesus was the best that could ever be.
The question of "grace" was at the heart of the Reformation, which Martin Luther initiated. This amounted to the question of where do I find a gracious God? Luther believed the saving work of Christ is imputed for the remission of sins via the words of the gospels. This led to his fourfold formula of solo Christo, sola gratia, sola fide, sola scriptura, i.e. only Christ, grace, faith and scripture. Martin Luther believed in the Creed of Chalcedon and that Jesus was both God and man. He viewed incarnation as the union of God and man.
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“Of all the barbarous middle ages, that
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Of man! it is—I really scarce know what;
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A period something like a printed page,
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—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“For hours, in fall days, I watched the ducks cunningly tack and veer and hold the middle of the pond, far from the sportsman;... but what beside safety they got by sailing in the middle of Walden I do not know, unless they love its water for the same reason that I do.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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“Go on then in doing with your pen what in other times was done with the sword; shew that reformation is more practicable by operating on the mind than on the body of man.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)