Sovereign Grace Baptist Church Meets weekly at 907 Hillsboro Boulevard, Manchester, TN, 37355. Currently, our church is without a pastor/elder and the members meet weekly for praise and worship in hymn, prayer, reading of Scripture, study of the word, and fellowship.
Most Satisfied: A Summary of Anselm’s Theology (n.1)
ANSELM (c.1033–1109). Born in Aosta in Italy, at the age of twenty-six Anselm became a Benedictine monk, entering the abbey of Bec in Normandy. In 1063 he was made prior, in succession to Lanfranc (1005–89), and fifteen years later abbot, a post he held for a further fifteen years (1078–93). He then again succeeded Lanfranc, as Archbishop of Canterbury, until his death in 1109. Anselm sought to uphold the pope’s rights in England and to maintain the independence of the English church from the king. As a result, most of his time as archbishop was spent on the continent, in exile. (n.2)
In, his most famous book, Why God Became Man? Anselm is answering the question given certain presuppositions. These include the great offence against God by mankind’s sin. Here it is significant to remember that the magnitude of the offence is not measured by the nature of the sin but by the nature of the One sinned against. Thus Anselm argues that the debt mankind owes to God for failing to give Him his due, is something that only God Himself can rectify. This inherently justifies God in condemning sinners to an eternal hell.
God is only satisfied, hence Anselm’s theory of the Atonement, by One who is more than the sum of humanity (which could never suffice to restore God’s honor), and the One who is so “chosen” to restore the honor must by necessity command humanity’s allegiance: “The One who frees humanity from their predicament demands their obedience.” (n.3). And secondly, “in order for an individual to offer an acceptable satisfaction he must be ‘all that God is not.’ ”n.4).
In Jesus Christ, the God-Man, the harmony is restored to the universe that was disrupted by sin. Our faith and devotion, in obedience to the One who sets us free, is offered to God alone, as it is God who frees us. This is a grace centered and God centered theology. The whole purpose of life is to Glorify God by giving Him His due. “Great is the Lord and Greatly to be Praised” (Psalm 48:1).
Theodore Zachariades
Notes: 1 Anselm was a classic proponent of Augustinian epistemology in 1078 broke new ground with the publication of his Proslogion, originally called Faith Seeking Understanding.
2 Anthony Lane, “Anselm,” in Ferguson, S. B., & Packer, J. I., eds. New Dictionary of Theology (electronic ed. [InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove, IL, 2000, c1988] ).
3 David Hogg, “Anselm,” in The Dictionary of Historical Theology, ed. Trevor Hart (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), p. 18.
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