Living Towards Eternal Life: Saint Anselm’s Christian Anthropology (original) (raw)

This chapter explores the relationship between the present life and eternal life in Anselm’s thought. The first section examines a situation of difficult choice, to illustrate the clear priority in value of eternal life over temporal life in Anselm’s writings. The second section turns to his characterizations of the present life and the afterlife. The third section examines the value of temporal life as a good and the disvalue of temporal death as an evil. The fourth section advances and provides support for a claim: given Anselm’s anthropology, it is possible for the present life to be not only a preparation for eternal life, but also to some degree participation in eternity