> Jesus remained that way until the late Middle Ages, which is where the first accounts of the self-sacrifice begin to enter our history.
In scandinavia you mean? Even still I find that surprising. Gregory of Nyssa, Basil of Caesarea, and John Chrysostom for example wrote on this subject in the fourth century and were all incredibly well known among early christians and through the middle ages.
Some very early detractors of christianity latched onto the weakness and submissiveness of Jesus as being incompatible with their contemporary ideal of manly virtue. Influential early christians like the ones I mentioned accepted that assessment and used it to form the theological foundations of self-sacrifice that have always been present in christianity.
Certainly the warrior-figure conception has always been there as well, it has never been purely one or the other. And it's definitely true that that element has had more emphasis in certain times and places. But, not knowing anything about them, I find it very unlikely that scandinavian christians would have been ignorant of this entire, extremely significant, branch of christian thought.
In scandinavia you mean? Even still I find that surprising. Gregory of Nyssa, Basil of Caesarea, and John Chrysostom for example wrote on this subject in the fourth century and were all incredibly well known among early christians and through the middle ages.
Some very early detractors of christianity latched onto the weakness and submissiveness of Jesus as being incompatible with their contemporary ideal of manly virtue. Influential early christians like the ones I mentioned accepted that assessment and used it to form the theological foundations of self-sacrifice that have always been present in christianity.
Certainly the warrior-figure conception has always been there as well, it has never been purely one or the other. And it's definitely true that that element has had more emphasis in certain times and places. But, not knowing anything about them, I find it very unlikely that scandinavian christians would have been ignorant of this entire, extremely significant, branch of christian thought.