Recovering our memory: Anselm

Name: Anselm
When: 1033 – 1109
Where: Archbishop of Canterbury, England

So what?

Anselm was a “schoolman”, or “scholastic”, from an era when Christian thinkers were trying to ally reason to faith, showing that the Christian faith was reasonable, and using reason to further understand their faith. Anselm’s legacy was in three main areas:

• He offered evidence of God’s existence. God is by definition perfect. Something that exists is more perfect than something that doesn’t exist. Therefore, if you imagine a perfect Being, He must exist, since if He doesn’t exist He isn’t perfect. So there must be a perfect God. This is a headscratcher…
• He held that man is born sinful, passed down from human generation to human generation; but (unlike most of his contemporaries) he rejected the idea that this sinfulness was a result of the sinful lust that always accompanied sex.
• He laid out, for the first time, a “doctrine of the atonement”. He said that every human owes God obedience, as their King. When we don’t obey, we owe God “satisfaction” for the loss to His honour as our sovereign. But since we always owe God full obedience, we have no way of “making satisfaction” to God. Only a perfect person could make satisfaction on our behalf; and even if there were such a person, we would then owe Him satisfaction instead. So the only person who can offer God satisfaction on our behalf is God Himself. So God became man, lived a perfect life, and then willingly died. God then rewarded His Son for His self-sacrifice by applying His merit (or satisfaction) to His people.

Anselm’s insights into why Jesus became man, lived perfectly, and died on the cross laid the groundwork for the development of a more fully biblical doctrine of the atonement, which took into account the truth that Jesus died for sins, taking our punishment as well as offering us His perfect obedience as “satisfaction”. But Anselm’s teaching is a helpful reminder that Jesus did not only take His people’s sins in His death; He also gave His people His perfect record, or life.

Random fact: When King William II’s brother wanted to go to war, Anselm was asked for some money to help fund it. He offered £500, but this was turned down on the basis it wasn’t enough. Later, the King decided to accept the offer; but Anselm said it was too late, he’d given the money to the poor.

Good quote: “I do not seek to understand so that I may believe; I believe so that I may understand.”

Prayer of thanks (This is a prayer written by Anselm):
I confess, O Lord, with thanksgiving, that you have made me in your image, So that I can remember you, think of you, and love you. But your image in me is so worn away … so darkened by the smoke of sin, that it cannot do the thing it was made for, unless You renew it and remake it. Lord, I am not trying to climb up to your height...But I do want to understand a little of your truth which may heart already believes and loves.