Cur Deus Homo Research Articles

TEOLOGI MODERN RUDOLF BULTMANN; ESKATOLOGI DAN DEMITOLOGISASI

Rudolf Karl Bultman was a New Testament scholar who began his studies at the University of Marburg in 1916-1921. Bultmann was influenced by Existentialist philosophy. His thinking was not merely superficial but posed a serious challenge to liberalism and orthodoxy. For several centuries Christology has been built using the "above" approach or Christology from above, one example is Cur Deus Homo? Written by Anselm. Modern theologians reverse this approach with the Christology from below pattern. This pattern changes the direction of Christology from theocentric to the anthropocentric. Christology becomes Jesusology. Bultmann, as a child of the modern era, clearly understands the problems of liberalism, so he stands up to challenge his era which has gone beyond the proper limits in treating biblical texts, especially the New Testament. He is more skeptical than Barth and Brunner in his criticism of the reconstruction of the historical Jesus according to the historical pattern of modernism. The evangelical wing tends to be “hostile” to Bultmanian thought because its demythologizing program attacks the validity of the Bible. However, the author sees the points of Bultmann's contribution as well as the weaknesses of his thinking

Cur Homo Deus? A Catholic Response to a Posthumanist Narrative

Yuval Noah Harari’s book Homo Deus has popularized and promoted the case for a posthumanist reading of universal history in the 21st century. Among the features of his narrative are atheism, a deterministic rejection of free will, and a hedonistic theory of value. Passing the seventieth anniversary of Humani Generis, Pius XII’s call for “seriousness, moderation and measure” when weighing and judging the conclusions of human science, including theories of evolution, remains relevant. With special attention to Anselm of Canterbury’s aptly titled Cur Deus Homo, this essay will identify and respond to several misrepresentations of key Christian doctrines which, when corrected, undermine the reliability of Harari’s narrative history and speculations. Rather than conceding Harari’s posthumanist conclusion that humanity’s path to divinity is a global, social agenda of biological and technological upgrade, I counterargue that Christian soteriology better responds to the deepest longings in human dissatisfaction through notions of grace and love manifest in the doctrines of incarnation and divine satisfaction.

Christ, the Power and Possibility of God in St. Anselm of Canterbury

In this article I examine the modal theism of St. Anselm of Canterbury, arguing that the person of the divine Son plays an important role in how Anselm thinks about God’s power and possibilities. Beginning with his first major theological work, the Monologion, I show how Anselm’s characterizes God’s knowledge of creation, not in the traditional, Augustinian terms of an intellectual divine “idea,” but in the comparatively more linguistic terms of a divine “locutio” or “utterance.” I go on to argue that this sets Anselm up for a somewhat unique modal theology, one in which God is best understood as acting and creating, not against the backdrop of an already defined and existing domain of possibilities, but in a way that makes him the inventor and creator of his own possibilities. In the second part of the article, I turn to Anselm’s influential work of Christology, Cur Deus Homo, to examine how his “theistic actualism” is paralleled in select aspects of his account of the divine Son’s Incarnation in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The Economy of Salvation

This paper extends Jean-Luc Nancy’s engagement with St. Anselm. Specifically, while Nancy is primarily concerned with Anselm’s Proslogion, this paper brings Nancy’s deconstructive protocols to bear on Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo. Of particular interest is Nancy’s treatment of the semiological association of economics and metaphysics. Ultimately, the “supplemental logic” developed here allows us to read Anselm’s dependence on the category of debt in the context of prayer. Finally, by stressing Nancy’s reception of French literary theory and poststructuralism, this paper offers an intervention into the burgeoning theological reception of Nancy, which generally sees him as a basically anti-Christian philosopher of Heideggerian, not Derridean, immanence.

Rewriting Mortality: Gift and Atonement in Cur Deus Homo

The model of atonement presented in Anselm of Canterbury's Cur Deus Homo has aroused a host of worries from theologians. The gist of their criticism is that Anselm inscribes redemptive violence into theology and thus encourages passive acquiescence to abusive power structures or even licenses the violence of abusers. Some suggest that the way forward would be to jettison Anselm's account and develop alternatives that are not liable to the same abuses. This paper argues that while alternatives may be desirable, Cur Deus Homo looms so large in theological imaginations as to defy jettisoning. We should instead try to perform better readings. This paper presents a close reading of this text as a monastic meditation on mortality oriented less toward resolving a problem of systematic theology than drawing readers into a renewed experience of devotion to God. To do that, Anselm works to rewrite the meaning of human mortality, making it less about the necessity of losing one's life and more about the possibility of a gift of death. The ethical paradigm that emerges is far from a complete moral vision, but is still more alluring than the one about which Anselm's contemporary critics worry.

Finding Collective Sin and Recompense in Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo

Finding Collective Sin and Recompense in Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo

Why God Had to Have an Immaculate Mother

AbstractAnselm's argument for the salvific necessity of the Incarnation in his Cur Deus Homo is justly famous and elegantly simple: only man ought; only God can; therefore, only a God-man both ought and can (atone for sin). Unfortunately it is a paralogism, trading on an equivocal use of ‘ought’. It is not difficult, however, to reconceive the meaning of the terms ‘ought’ and ‘can’ in a way that both renders the argument formally valid and deepens our christology. Sin may be conceived, per Anselm's own insistence, as a condition of the human soul in its relation to God, a failure of the human will to establish itself in harmonious union with the divine will. If the integrity of created human nature requires that its psychological conditions are propagated together with it, then one who has both the duty and ability to atone for sin must be descended from Adam but must enjoy the original justice of the soul that Adam rejected and deformed in himself. Thus, systematically reconstructing Anselm's argument has the surprising consequence of enabling us to posit an argument for the salvific necessity of the Immaculate Conception as a preparatory stage in the hypostatic union of the Incarnation.

‚Nondum considerasti quanti ponderis sit peccatum – Du hast noch nicht ermessen, welches Gewicht die Sünde hat‘. Die Bedeutung des Kreuzes für das Selbstverständnis des Menschen

Summary Anselm of Canterbury’s question ‚Cur Deus Homo – why God Became Man?‘ was hotly debated and elicited a vast plurality of answers throughout the history of Christian theology.Nevertheless, this question never has been answered officially by an authoritative doctrinal decision of the Church but has been left to theological reasoning, whose core issue, therefore, is a hermeneutics of the cross.Starting with Anselm’s famous answer and its deficiencies, the essay tries to show that a deeper and more convincing insight into the ‚pondus peccati – the severity of sin‘ is to be gained by an interpretation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth: The severity of sin lies in the consciousness of guilt.And it is shown that Luther, among others, interprets the cross of Christ as an answer to the question raised by Shakespeare’s Macbeth: „To know my deed, ’twere best not know myself.“

Uma leitura antropológica do Cur Deus homo de Santo Anselmo de Aosta

O presente estudo pretende analisar a obra Cur Deus homo, de Santo Anselmo, a partir de uma perspectiva antropológica. Após examinar a peculiaridade do método e revisar seus argumentos fundamentais, será possível perceber que Anselmo revela uma perspectiva essencialmente boa da natureza humana, que, mesmo abalada, não sucumbe ao pecado original. A liberdade e o projeto amoroso do Logos originante fundamentam a concepção anselmiana em torno do homem e sua natureza.

El atrevimiento de la razón incitada por la fe en San Anselmo

San Anselmo es un representante medieval importante de la relación delicada entre fe y razón. Tres de sus obras –Monologion, Epistola de incarnation Verbi y Cur Deus Homo– nos dan una muestra clara de esa interrelación, así como lo que él llama el uso de la sola ratione y el argumento de verdad necesaria. Este artículo es el preámbulo de una comprensión adecuada de su argumento para la prueba de la existencia de Dios, en el Proslogion que ha hecho famoso a su autor en la historia de la filosofía.

Guillaume de Saint-Thierry: Expose sur l'epitre aux Romans. Tome I. Livres I-III. Text by PAUL VERDEYEN, SJ.

This is the first volume of an intended complete Sources chrétiennes French translation, facing the Latin, based on the Corpus Christianorum edition of William of St Thierry’s Commentary on Romans. It includes a short biography of the author and extensive reflections on the method of exegesis William adopts, with discussion of his sources, manuscripts, and previous translations. As one of the Pauline epistles, Romans was frequently commented on in the schools in this period, but William seems to have been the only one of the first generation of Cistercians to write a commentary. He explains in his preface that he has not tried to say anything new, but merely to assemble for the student the authoritative views of the Fathers (magnorum doctorum … auctoritas) to help with the unravelling of the many puzzles the text presents. He has been prompted in this endeavour by the joy of contemplating God, which he wants others to share. His interests lay in spiritual matters rather than in the theological analysis which attracted members of the proto-academic community. (Peter Abelard famously tried to demolish the arguments of Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo in his own Commentary on Romans.) The present editor positions the commentary primarily in the context of William’s own spirituality and his theories about contemplation, as William would evidently have wished. There are additional ‘complementary’ notes on some key themes and topics arising in the text. All in all this is a most welcome translation and it is to be hoped the rest will speedily appear.

Justice and Mercy in Anselm's Cur Deus Homo

Justice and Mercy in Anselm's Cur Deus Homo

Tomás de Aquino, Anselmo de Canterbury e a crítica da razão teológica

Nine hundred years after the death of Anselm of Canterbury, this article examines his idea of Theology as a science in contrast with Aquinas's analysis of the same subject: the "rationes necessariae" of Anselm - in Theology of Redemption in his work "Cur Deus Homo?" - are compared with the reasons of Thomas Aquinas, who emphasizes the liberty of God.  

Anselm, Defensor Fidei

Abstract: Recently, Anselm's treatise on the atonement of Christ, Cur Deus Homo, has come in for sharp criticism as a ‘model of the atonement’ which teaches and subserves morbid, oppressive suffering, and ignores the particular deeds and words of Christ. A close reading of Anselm's treatise suggests another interpretation of Anselm's doctrine, in which ‘restoration’ is the central note, and the exemplary course of Christ's whole life is accented.

Seekers Found: Atonement in Early Quaker Experience (review)

38Quaker History SeekersFound: Atonement in Early QuakerExperience. By Douglas Gwyn. Wallingford, Pa: Pendle Hill, 2000. viii+420 pp. Notes and index. $20.00, paper. This book offers reflections on the Quaker situation from many angles. It is part history, part theology, and part sociology, equally concerned with the milieu ofthe sixteenth, seventeenth, and late twentieth centuries. It is a rich, thought-provoking book, one that invites reading and rereading. While much ofthis book is occupied with historical investigations, the central argument ofthe book is theological. Let me offer a summary here. The term"Seeker" designates areligious movement, widespreadinEngland in the 1640s, which asserted in various ways that current forms of the Christian churches were corrupt and that all the true Christian could do was to wait for a new and more compelling revelation ofthe true Christ. Gwyn sees the term "Seeker" as ametaphorwith muchbroader application, but this historical period is the primary reference point for his metaphor. This experience of emptiness profoundly transformed their religious practice, leading them to suspend use ofthe sacraments as a byproduct ofthe present corrupt reality. By suspending rituals believed by most Christians to be central to the worship of God, it brought formal religious observance to a standstill for Seekers (or stillstand, to use Caspar Schwenckfeld's German phrase), while they desperately sought a revitalization of spiritual life. For Gwyn, this is a fruitful moment, but it is only a moment. If seeking is to result in real spiritual growth, it must progress to finding, as many Seekers did in the 1 650s, when they embraced the Quaker movement. What did they find in the Quaker movement? Gwyn offers us two theological terms: "apocalypse" and "atonement." The Quaker version of"apocalypse" is developed in greater depth inhis previous works, but, briefly, it represents the "experiential, here-and-now" reality "in which the day ofthe Lord, the second advent of Christ was revealed. . . in the hearts of those present, creating a climate ofcrisis and decision for or againstthis incursion ofdivine power and authority on earth." (223) This spiritual crisis should lead the Seeker-turned-Quaker toward "atonement," which Gwyn defines as "reconciliationbetweenhumans and God, amonghumans, andwiththe creation." (383) The most widely accepted Christian versions ofatonement drawupon the work of the eleventh century Christian theologian Anselm, Cur Deus Homo. Anselm argues that Christ's death on the cross was necessary in order to satisfyGod'swrath, andthatthe divine/humanChristwasbothgreat enough and humble enough to bear the penalty for the sins of all human beings. Gwyn does not repudiate this theory, but he goes beyond it. The atonementthatthe early Quakers found, he argues, was "aradical surrender" Book Reviews39 ofthe selfto God, and then the fruits ofthat decision to surrender become evident in one's life. "As one experiences God's compassion, one becomes compassionate to others___ The cross is taken up within, then followed out into the world." (383) A great temptation is to forsake this life-giving form of atonement for others that might give life to some while denying it to others, through scapegoating, stigmatizing, or other forms of alienation. Gwyn sees too much evidence of such pathological forms of atonement, bothwithinthe Quakermovement(e.g., the JamesNayleraffair) andoutside ofit (the culture wars inAmerica inthe late twentieth century). In each case, he calls the participants back to the simple yet difficult synthesis of early Quakers. Those who encounter too much ofthe inferior form ofatonement, sometimes from Quakers themselves, are propelled back into the mode of Seekers, and thus the process begins again. Gwyn's lengthy historical analysis is devoted to explaining how these notions of"seeking" and"atonement" came aboutinthe firstplace, andhow they helped to shape the original Quaker movement in the 1650s. From contemporaries of Martin Luther such as Sebastian Franck and Caspar Schwenckfeld, he traces a path through the radical sects of the midseventeenth century (Antinomians, Levellers, Diggers, Ranters, Fifth Monarchists , Seekers) to the Quakers. Gwyn's work includes biographical data and generous extracts from the works of a dozen significant precursors. In respect to the historiographical argument between Rufus Jones, asserting that the early Quakers primarily drew from the mystical strand of Christianity, and, onthe other side, GeoffreyNuttall, assertingthat Quakers were an integral part of...

Satisfactio in St. Benedict’s Regula and St. Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo

Satisfactio in St. Benedict’s Regula and St. Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo

Anselm and the Unbelievers: Pagans, Jews, and Christians in the Cur Deus Homo

Anselm lived a good part of his life without any personal knowledge of other religious traditions. The Cur Deus Homo contains one of the few places in his writings where he acknowledges the existence of religious others. The author suggests how Anselm came to this awareness and explores the extent to which his representation of unbelievers in the Cur Deus Homo derives from this late recognition.

A Gift Exceeding Every Debt: An Eastern Orthodox Appreciation of Anselm's Cur Deus Homo

A Gift Exceeding Every Debt: An Eastern Orthodox Appreciation of Anselm's <i>Cur Deus Homo</i>

Anselm on the Necessity of the Incarnation

Anselm's Cur Deus Homo argues that only by the Incarnation can God save humanity. This seems to sit ill with the claim that God is omnipotent and absolutely free, for this entails that God could save humanity in other ways. I show that features of Anselm's concept of God and treatment of necessity make the claim that the Incarnation is a necessary means of salvation problematic. I then show that for Anselm, all conditions which make the Incarnation necessary for human salvation stem from God's nature and prior choices. If so, the Incarnation's necessity restricts neither God's freedom nor His power. For that the Incarnation is necessary given God's actual choices does not entail that it would have been necessary had God made other choices, or that God could not have made choices which would have made the Incarnation non-necessary.

Jewish-Christian disputations and the twelfth-century renaissance

An important aspect of the medieval debate between Christians and Jews was Jewish-Christian disputations. These disputations were either records of real discussions or academic treatises written in the form of dialogues. They invariably reflect current intellectual trends in Christian and Jewish circles. The Dialogus inter Christianum et Iudeum de fide Catholica, which has been wrongly attributed to William of Champeaux, is a fictitious Jewish-Christian disputation which has never received the attention it deserves. Previously it has been regarded as either an uninteresting pastiche of Gilbert Crispin's Disputatio Iudei et Christiani or a poor imitation of Anselm of Canterbury's Cur Deus Homo. Far from being as dim-witted as it has been made out to be, this disputation would seem, in fact, to reflect some of the teaching that went on in the school of Anselm of Loan and William of Champeaux. As such it provides us with an opportunity to learn more about how the work of some scholars of the twelfth-century renaissance influenced the form and contents of contemporary Jewish-Christian disputations.