Speaking Like Luther

Within three centuries of his resurrection, Jesus of Nazareth was presented to the world as incarnation of the Second Person of a triune Godhead. The great debate at Nicaea sought to resolve the issue of how the death of Christ could be effective for the sins of the whole world. The Alexandrians and Romans infused Christ with the qualities of a Greek deity, and argued that Christ had literally come down from his heavenly throne and appeared among mortals as a man, yet died as a deity for mankind. The pragmatic Asians, however, believed Christs existence began only with his birth, and believed that Jesus Christ was a man sent by God to reflect the nature of God perfectly to others. The debate-winning Alexandrians explained salvation using Greek metaphysical notions about the relationship between physical and spiritual worlds. Speaking Like Luther enters the fray by tackling the same questions while rejecting metaphysical arguments. In a way, it gives a voice back to the early Asian bishops. It asks the 21st century Christian to challenge what Nicaea and the Church Fathers first believed to be the truth, and to reconsider how it was that Jesus could save his own nation and offer a universal salvation to all mankind, if he was something less than a deity.