6 Oct, 2006 in
Uncategorized by
KevinP
praxistheologia.com
Look Up.In Why God Became Man, Anselm argues that God necessarily became a man to affect salvation. Anselm’s argument begins with the assertion that God must punish sin as an assertion of his just sovereignty. Furthermore, Anselm argues, humanity must voluntarily obey God. Since humanity already owes this perfect obeidence, and because humanity has sinned, humanity is incapable of offering perfect obedience. Because God is infinitely good, the sin against God is of infinite demerit.
Furthermore, Anselm insists that humanity must give above and beyond what is owed –perfect obdience– so that the satisfaction is proportionate to the sin. Hence, Anselm believes the only way to pay back the debt is to give God something of infinite value. Therefore, because humanity suffers from original sin and because humanity has nothing of infinite worth humanity, by itself, can’t pay the debt incurred by our sin. Only God is capable of paying the debt, but only man should. In light of all this, Anselm argues, God necessarily became a man, born without original sin that Jesus, hypostatically God and Man, may may pay the debt.
Nate | October 7th, 2006 at 5:09 pm #
This was a good, close summary of Anselm’s argument. About the only thing that I’d suggest is that you go a bit more in depth about the metaphors and conceptual families that drive this sort of theology. In particular, you could have said a bit more about the category “sovereignty” and why, in Anselm’s medieval mindset, sovereignty requires that the sovereign punish wrongs.
On the other hand, if you’re writing this up for a medieval theology professor, that might not be as necessary.
At any rate, A.
grete | October 9th, 2006 at 9:57 pm #
I like it when you write stories as analogies for certain realities or to explain abstractions. Can you do that with this one?
KevinP | October 10th, 2006 at 4:24 am #
Grete,
When have I done this story analogy writing?
grete | October 10th, 2006 at 8:04 pm #
Hmm… I’m not sure if I’m remembering blog entries or stories you send me that you wrote for classes or for posting around campus.
I distinctly remember two stories that you wrote kind of as analogies to other stories and ideas. I just can’t remember what they were about…