Ask anyone who recognizes the name Anselm, and they will tell you that he was the formulator of a theory of the atonement in which God is an exacting accountant of honor. Damaged honor has to be restored; and, tallied up, the damaged honor proves infinite, and so demands infinite restoration. Anselm’s theory looks like that dreaded “classical theism” applied to the atonement. Abelard’s God seems a good big cuddlier, and “subjective” theories of the atonement seem more personable than “objective” theories.
That’s a fairly radical misperception. Abelard’s theory, and all the others that followed him, assume that the atonement was intended to affect us . Anselm’s theory, on the contrary, assumes a God who is being acted upon . On Anselm’s theory, God is at least as “interactive” as Abelard’s, maybe more so.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Restoring Man at Notre Dame
It is fascinating to be an outsider on the inside of an institution going through times of…
Deliver Us from Evil
In a recent New York Times article entitled “Freedom With a Side of Guilt: How Food Delivery…
Natural Law Needs Revelation
Natural law theory teaches that God embedded a teleological moral order in the world, such that things…
