The Flesh of the Word

The Flesh of the Word explores how disputes between Ulrich Zwingli and Martin Luther over the nature of Christ's body crystalized into a lasting distinction between the Lutheran and Reformed branches of Protestantism. Reformed theologians articulated a view, called the extra Calvinisticum, that the eternal Son maintains his existence beyond the flesh during his earthly ministry and perpetually. The book investigates how this doctrine that Christ exist both wholly within and wholly beyond his human flesh developed from its first articulation by Zwingli to the end of the sixteenth century and how this affected the Reformed understanding of Christ.