Theological reflection on the person and saving work of Christ in the past several decades has been concerned primarily with the adult man Jesus, his life-giving ministry, his consequent death on the cross, and the salvation that his life, death, and resurrection offer to sinful human beings and a broken and unjust world. But the liberating good news of divine incarnation does not begin with Jesus' public ministry as an adult. Rather, it begins with a socially high-risk pregnancy; with a humble, messy, and painful birth; and with the natal body of a squalling, dependent, and vulnerable infant. This article draws on both contemporary feminist scholarship and premodern theological voices to posit that recovering the nativity as a christological symbol brings into focus at least three important theological insights that a predominant emphasis on the adult Jesus marginalizes in christology and the Christian community today: that the natal life taken on in the Incarnation, like all human life, is inherently vulnerable from the start; that the nativity is an overlooked, yet powerful icon of divine redemption; and that contemplating the vulnerability of Christ's natality can cultivate the practice of peace in a vulnerable and violent world.
