Journal: Faith and Mission
Volume: FM 05:2 (Spring 1988)
Article: The Humanity Of Christ In Some Modern Theologies
Author: Fisher H. Humphreys

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FM 5:2 (Spring 1988) p. 3

The Humanity Of Christ In Some Modern Theologies

Fisher H. Humphreys

Professor of Theology,
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

From the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325 to the Council of Chalcedon in A.D. 451, the Christian church worked out an official teaching concerning Jesus Christ. The consensus was that Jesus was one person with two natures, the divine and the human. Qui enim verus est Deus, idem verus est homo (”The same one who is truly God, is also truly man.” Tome of Leo, 4). Although the councils utilized philosophical as well as biblical language, the Fathers believed that the orthodox consensus was faithful to the New Testament witness concerning Jesus. So credible was this claim that even Baptists, who have had no creed but the Bible, have affirmed orthodox Christology and utilized its language.

The conviction that Jesus was a real, true, actual man, is therefore a component of orthodox Christology. Over the centuries, however, two factors have conspired to erode the church’s witness to the reality of Christ’s humanity. One is that the non-Christian world has been willing to think of Jesus as a human being, but not as divine. The church, understandably, has reacted to this by insisting that Christ is divine, and it has sometimes done this at the expense of his humanity. In a kind of seesaw arrangement the church sometimes has attempted to emphasize Christ’s deity by minimizing his humanity, and it has looked with disapproval on anyone who emphasized his humanity. This misguided attitude continues today. It would not be surprising, for example, if some readers of this issue of Faith and Mission become alarmed because in it so much attention is being given to Jesus’ humanity. It is, of course, illogical to say that a confession that Christ is “truly human” is equivalent to saying that he is “‘merely human,” and it is ironic that those who affirm a major component of orthodox Christology should be denounced for having betrayed orthodoxy, but that, in fact, is the situation which has existed in the church for a very long time, and it is not likely to end soon.

A second and theologically more important reason for the church’s failure always to confess Christ’s humanity successfully, is that our awareness of what it is to be human has shifted from time to time over the centuries. It is necessary in order to understand and confess meaningfully that Jesus is truly human, to be aware of how we and our contemporaries understand human existence and to relate Christ’s humanity to this contemporary understanding. This is not an easy task.

The shift in consciousness about what constitutes human existence began early in church history. I shall give two examples. In the first cent...

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