The Humanity of Jesus Christ in Zwingli’s Theology

Abstract

Scholarship on Zwingli is divided regarding the prominence of Christ’s humanity in the Swiss reformer, with scholars like W. P. Stephens arguing that Christ’s divinity overshadows his human nature and others like Gottfried Locher contending that the human nature of Christ holds a critical place in Zwingli’s thought. This article, building upon Locher, argues that the humanity of Christ serves a unifying function in Zwingli’s theology to preserve both the exclusivity of Christ’s mediation and a theocentric religion. According to Zwingli, Jesus Christ is the elect Mediator who, in his true humanity, defines the human relationship to the Triune God and brings coherence to Zwingli’s theology. As the seed of the woman, suffering sacrifice, ethical exemplar, and exalted representative, Christ qua man ensures that salvation is a divine work from creation through the eschaton to the glory of the Triune God.