The question facing Arius was Jesus truly God in the flesh or a created being -- in other words, was Jesus God or not? Arius denied the deity of the Son of God, holding that Jesus was also a created being, created by God as the first act of His divine creation and that therefore the nature of Christ was anomoios (“unlike”) that of God the Father. The Arians viewed Jesus is a finite created being with some divine attributes, but certainly not eternal and not divine in and of Himself. Nestorians emphasize the disunity of the human and divine natures of Christ, that is, that Christ essentially exists as two persons sharing one body with His divine and human natures completely distinct and separate.
A high Christology especially emphasizes the divine nature of Jesus Christ, focusing on his pre-existence and and his pre-incarnate role as God. In contrast, a low Christology focuses more on Jesus' humanity and His earthly experience in the flesh. Expressed liturgically, a low Christology emphasizes Jesus in more personal terms -- without the formality and reverence marking in that relationship. Worship flowing from a low Christology then focuses on the horizontal rather than the vertical -- on fellowship, folksiness and casualness. A high Christology focuses upon the vertical and upon the reverence, awe, and solemnity afforded the most high God whom we meet in the face of Christ.
A high Christology then is reflected in a formal order or ordo, in the attitude of reverence, in vestments which set apart the clergy, and in the heavenly which is met here in this earthly moment. A low Christology would eschew those things in favor of a more homey and simple approach. While this is not an absolute rule without exception, it is a typical pattern. The problem of Arianism today might well be more closely identified with those communities in which an aw shucks Jesus is just one of the guys. Certainly John's Gospel would fall in to a high Christology side of things, along with St. Paul and his writings.
When beginning Christology “from below,” one inevitably begins with those things that identify that "below" -- such as how in Matthew’s Gospel the Christ is a baby, born of Mary. Later this Christology speaks of this man from Nazareth who was truly God Himself in the flesh. So in the genealogy that begins the Gospel there is a clear emphasis on Jesus’ human nature, rooted in the promise laid down and kept through the generations since Abraham. Jesus was born as every human child is born but from there the focus shifts to the divine nature of Christ and, with John tells the story of His saving work beginning with His baptism, temptation, and teaching. This is a good example of Christology that begins from below, starting with the human nature of Jesus, and then manifest the divine. It would seem that among some Christians today the divine is almost alien to the kerygma and it is solely the human that is both the focus and the forming principle for what happens in worship.
While it is certainly not automatic, a high Christology is generally reflective of liturgical worship in which reverence is a key component -- both in the East as well as in the West. Indeed, the shape of worship in the Revelation of St. John expresses a very high Christology, not something foreign to what happens in worship on earth but the prefigurement of what is to come, the foretaste of the eternal, in which the focus is clearly on the Christ the Son of God. How we worship begins with the Word incarnate among us and does not depart from that Word in flesh in our midst. In this way there is no disconnect between what happens in the liturgy and the promise fulfilled in the heavenly sanctuary but a distinct and profound congruity. It would seem to me that, again not automatic, a high Christology and a fuller liturgical celebration are more consistent just as a low Christology and a more earthy and folksy worship setting go hand in hand.
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