I just finished reading the ARC version of this thread and I've read this one earlier in the week. People debating whether Kellhus is a savior or not, the extent of his humanity/emotions and listing examples from the books got me to thinking about Akka crashing Kellhus's coronation at the end of the first trilogy. I guess I always thought (when I did think deeply at all about it) that Kellhus let Akka leave and live because of some kind of human connection/fondness for him, probably due to wishful thinking and my own natural inclination to want it to be that way. Does anyone else think that could have been a factor, or did Kellhus see his usefulness as a future tool far outweighing any threat he posed and was in total rational power strategist mode, with no emotion playing a part?
While I like something of Somnambulist's conjecture above, it might be as simple as, at the time, Kellhus couldn't risk stopping or otherwise refuting Achamian in his crowning moment, lest he risk Achamian disenchanting those assembled.
I'd kind of put these two together: if Kellhus
acts like he lets Achamian go free out of compassion, out of fondness, what's the implied message? "Poor, misguided Achamian... my beloved teacher... jealousy has blinded him." By directly confronting the accusations, he would appear weaker. Instead, it's like "these assertions are so clearly false that I need not bother." And only later will the state and religious apparati clamp down, once the vast, vast majority are already on-board.
And besides all that, Kellhus is probably still pretty sure he can either ignore him or reel him back in. And what does, in fact happen? Akka marginalizes himself by retreating into hermitage and, as we later see, starts to come back around to the possibility of Kellhus as the savior.
It seems clear in retrospect that Kellhus needed Esmenet too much to give her back--none of his other lovers ended up bearing any successful children (though I'm still a bit baffled as to how Kel could figure that out). And it seems possible that, in the end, he'll have his cake and eat it too, getting E's womb and (just maybe?) get Achamian back on his side as well.
We'll see. But to the original question, I find my self leaning toward the idea that Kellhus is, in some sense, a savior. To be clear: I do think there are all kinds of reasons to believe otherwise, but my heart says savior. Of course, I couldn't tell you, at this moment, whether or not that heart has an eye unnaturally grafted onto it. Point being: what do I know?