medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Atonement (6)
The 'Ransom' theory was challenged by St Anselm (1033-1109). Born in
Aosta, Lombardy, he left home after disagreements with his father and
travelled for some time on the continent before entering the monastic
school at Bec in Normandy in 1059. There he studied under Lanfranc, who
enormously influenced him. He took monastic vows in 1060, and in 1063
succeeded Lanfranc as prior. In 1078 he scceeded Herluin as Abbot, and
in 1093 he succeeded Lanfranc as Archbishop of Canterbury. His
episcopate was marred by qarrels with William II and Henry I.
He left numerous thological works, notably his Monologion, Proslogion
and Cur Deus Homo; also a tract on the dual procession of the Holy
Spirit, 'contra Graecos', which does not endear him to the Orthodox. It
was in the Cur Deus Homo that he addressed the question of human
redemption. It takes the form of a dialoge between Anselm and his pupil
Boso. Boso questions the traditional interpretation of the Atonement as
follows:
"We also commonly say that God was bond to strive with the devil by
justice, rather than by force, in order to set man free. On this
showing, when thedevil killed Him in whom there was no reason for
death, and who was God, he would justly lose his power over sinners.
Otherwise God would have done njust violence to him, since he was
justly in possession of man; after all, he did not sieze man by
violence, but man handed himself over to him freely.
"But I cannot see what force this argument has. If the devil or man
belonged to himself or to anyone but God, or remained in some power
other than God's, perhaps it would be a sound argument. But the devil
and man belong to God alone, and neither one stands outside God's
power; what case then, did God have to plead with his own creature,
concerning his own creature, in his own affair, unless it was in order
to punish his servant, who had persuaded his fellow servant to desert
their common master and go over to him, and as a traitor had received a
fugitive, as a thief received another thief with what he had stolen
from him master? For each was a thief, since one was persuaded by the
other to steal himself from his master.
"What then, could be more just than for God to do this? Or how could it
be unjust for God, the Judge of all, to rescue man, thus held, from the
power of him who so unjustly held him - whether to punish him by some
other means than the devil or to spare him?
"For even though it was just for man to be tormented by the devil, it
was unjust for the devil to torment him. It is true that man deserved
to be punished, and that it was most fitting to be one by him whose
suggestion man accepted when he sinned. But the devil had earned no
right to punish him; on the contrary, this was the height of injustice,
since the devil was not moved to do it by love of justice, but was
driven by malicious impulse. For he did not do it by God's orders, but
only with the permission of God's incomprehensible wisdom, which orders
even evil things for good."
Bill.
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