For the first thousand years of Christianity, the Gospel message was not understood from the now common Scholastic mindset of Anselm. Today, Anselm’s ideas are unfortunately the most dominate perspective of Christianity in the Western world, both Protestant and Roman Catholic. The early Christians, just as today’s Eastern Christians, understood that Christ releases us from sin (our inability to understand the meaning and purpose of life as God created it to be) by destroying its root, death. Those who have “put on Christ” are no longer slaves of sin, “because you are not under the Law but under grace” (Romans 6:14). For the “Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the Law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2).

Anselm, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury in the 11th century, was the father of modern Scholastic theology and philosophy. He has been seen by some to be the first to develop a doctrine of Atonement apart from the Church’s biblical-patristic heritage. By adjusting his theology to fit his society’s understanding of the time, Anselm utilizes a feudal ethic to rationally discern the unfathomable depth of the mystery of God.

Anselm can be seen as a bridge between St. Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas. By using classical philosophy and logic as instruments of discovery (instead of a means of interpretation), Anselm’s doctrines made the infinite truth of God subject to a created finite intellect. In contrast, the Scriptures are quite clear that God’s revelation “is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:11-12).

The current Western position, originating from Anselm, officially states that “justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ, who offered Himself on the cross as a living victim and whose blood has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all men.” The question then is raised: How does this Atonement happen and who is it offered to? The Eastern Church likewise sees Christ as the One Who gave His life as a ransom for many. But, Christ is the ransom that was paid to death as St. Athanasius the Great says in light of Hosea 13:14 “The ransom was offered to death on behalf of all so that by it He once more opened the way to the heavens.”

Think about this!