Augustine of Hippo

Although less fully commented on than other themes in his theology, Augustine’s understanding of Christ is central to his whole thought. Augustine insists on the completeness of both the divinity and the humanity of Christ, and suggests that the point of their contact is his human soul. Around 412, his use of the term persona with reference to the unity of Christ took on a more technical coloring, and he later occasionally anticipates the language of Leo and Chalcedon—notably in his contributions to the Christological profession of the monk Leporius. Christ, in Augustine’s writings, always remains the mediator between God and a fallen, inattentive humanity. Augustine frequently draws on Paul’s image of the Church as the “body of Christ,” arguing that the speaker in the Psalms is the “whole Christ” either as our head speaking alone, as the body speaking to its head, or as head and body together.