Living Towards Eternal Life: Saint Anselm’s Christian Anthropology (original) (raw)
Related papers
Anselm and the Art of Theology
Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly , 2020
“Although it has been widely accepted for a long time," writes Eleonore Stump, "the Anselmian kind of interpretation of the atonement, in any of its forms, is in fact unsalvageable.” In her book on the atonement, an exercise in philosophical theology, she puts forward instead what she calls a Marian theory. In this 2019 Cardinal Wright lecture, I argue that she has got Anselm, atonement, and theology itself wrong.
Anselmian Apocatastasis: The Fitting Necessity of Universal Salvation in St. Anselm's Cur Deus Homo
Scottish Journal of Theology, 2018
This article makes a case for universal salvation based on the soteriology of Anselm of Canterbury’s Cur Deus Homo. It argues that without an affirmation of universal salvation, Anselm’s argument fails on the grounds of its own soteriological logic, which unites the fitting and the necessary for God, assumes the primary importance of divine aseity for understanding salvation history, and affirms the ontological unity of the human race as the object of God’s redemptive love. Also detailed is the development of the relationship between mercy and justice in Anselm’s thought from the Proslogion to Cur Deus Homo, and it is shown how Anselm’s developed soteriology in the latter challenges major features of the Augustinianism he inherited. The article concludes that a robust theology of divine aseity like Anselm’s will entail that creation be understood as a theatre for the manifestation of God’s eternal love for his creatures.
Religious Inquiries, 2015
This article studies the problem of eternal life from a philosophical perspective. It focuses on the approaches of Bergson, Husserl, and Heidegger from contemporary philosophy, and shows that using these three philosophical approaches can better explain certain aspects of revealed theology, such as resurrection of flesh, eternity in a transcendent dimension, and eternal life as the angels in heaven. In this way, a point of interaction between philosophy and theology is highlighted.
Two Theologies of Death: Anthropological Gleanings
Modern Theology, 1997
Hardly any other moment in life besides death provides a subject for theological reflection that brings to such clear focus the precise force of a theologian's anthropological proposals. This essay addresses certain issues in theological anthropology, both material and formal issues. It focuses the issues by seeing what can be gleaned from comparing two mid-20th century theologies of death: Why select death as the lens through which the issues are brought to focus? It is because death focuses attention on the interconnections among three major ways in which Christianity has traditionally said human persons are related to God: the relation of creature to creator, the relation of redeemed to redeemer, and the relation of glorified to consummator. Each relation is constituted by God actively relating to us on God's own initiative. The dynamic character of these "relations", God's active relating, is crucial in Christian belief. For that reason, I shall generally write of "God creating", "redeeming" and "consummating" us rather than write more abstractly of God's "creation-relation" or "redemption-relation" or "consummationrelation" to us.
Divine and Human Rectitude: Meeting Anselm's God through Moral Life
Anselm’s understanding of God has several important features. First, God is the unity of attributes which we grasp and understand partially but not entirely, and about which we can come to a more adequate understanding through right use of our reason. Second, some of those attributes, e.g. goodness, justice, are ones we typically think of as moral attributes. Third, the ultimate standards, origins, and even full intelligibility of morality reside in the triune God, and one handle Anselm’s work offers for our understanding this is the polysemic, complex, and reflexive notion of rectitudo. By better understanding rectitudo we in fact better understand God. But, “understanding rectitudo” can be regarded in several ways. An inadequate way of understanding it would simply produce some theory or formula without following its implications out further, and without connecting it with actual concrete moral life. Anselm’s works provide both a framework and some content for more adequate understanding of rectitudo. Specifically, his works allow understanding what it means for a given human being to concretely will (including to act, think, speak, and feel) rightly, as they should, in determinate situations. I highlight three particularly relevant features of Anselm’s thought: will as determinate affectiones; the interplay between grace and the will; the mediateness of our knowledge and relation to God through moral life.
An Analysis of Anselm’s Philosophical Theology and the Problem of Man’s Freedom in His De Concordia
An Analysis of Anselm’s Philosophical Theology and the Problem of Man’s Freedom in His De Concordia, 2015
The purpose of this study is to discover, present and analyze the key ideas of Anselm of Canterbury concerning the notions of knowledge, will and mode of divine-human relations in the context of this “knowledge-will” framework which is important due to (a) somewhat insufficient attention to the medieval insights on the issue and (b) the peculiarity that Anselm’s intuitions have. More specifically, the object of the given paper is Anselmian understanding of relations between God’s foreknowledge and will, on the one side, and human free will, on the other side, as it is presented in the work entitled De Concordia. In this treatise Anselm of Canterbury partially uses and further elaborates some ideas of Augustine and Boethius, while integrating, updating and synthesizing them in a creative manner, and partially develops a number of thoughts of his own. As a result, there is a set of the well-formulated and comprehensive theses concerning (i) different types of (metaphysical) necessity, (ii) a proper definition of freedom of choice and will, (iii) the nature of will per se, and, finally, (iv) unique relation of “simultaneity” that exists between God’s knowledge, God’s will and the creature’s rational will. These ideas are presented and explicated in the article along with detailed exposition and analytical examination of the main line of argumentation found in the De Concordia.
An Orthodox Christian Perspective on Death and its Anthropological Implications
The Tribune, 2023
The primary objective of this article is to facilitate individuals who are experiencing distress to develop a more positive perspective on the concept of death. This perception can potentially assist them in coping with the emotional and psychological challenges associated with this inevitable phenomenon. It is worth noting that within the context of Orthodox Christian tradition, death is regarded as a ceremonial event characterised by a state graceful happiness. In order to comprehend this concept, it is necessary to commence by elucidating the prelapsarian existence, which bears resemblance to the post-apocalyptic state following the Day of Judgement. Next, we will discuss the concept of Fall and its repercussions on human existence, specifically the earthly life, which is immersed in a state of "autism". The mortal existence endeavours to confront its inherent finitude, and it is of interest to observe the strategies it employs in this pursuit. The cessation of bodily functions represents a transition towards a more elevated state of being. This discussion will explore the significance of death, the various perspectives held by individuals regarding death, and the concept of life-giving death. Additionally, we will examine the role of human ceremonies in highlighting the importance of the human experience.