In order to acquire the mind of Christ, we must learn how to embrace the vision He had about human life. This involves our understanding of why God became a human being. It seems that several different versions of Jesus’ vision of life has developed over the centuries and since the separation of the Eastern and Western Churches, we have seen different versions emerge.

Anselm of Canterbury’s doctrine of the Atonement (the Western approach) has been said by some to be a key to understanding the rejection of the saving truth of Christianity by an untold number of people in the last millennium. They reject Anselm’s portrait of an angry God who is in need of being appeased; who pronounces people guilty or not. The modern Anselmian doctrine of Atonement reduces the powerfully transformative aspect of the Gospel to a juridical concept, drained of its life. In order to understand the difference between the Churches of the East and West, we must understand something about the approach of Anselm.

One of the greatest miracles for people of ancient times was coming to know the Gospel message: that the True and Living God is Love; a personal and living God Who gave His only Begotten Son, “not to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17). The god’s of ancient times were remote, murderous and even required sacrifices such as children. The concept alone that the Christian God was a personal God of mercy, love and forgiveness, powerfully attracted great numbers. Many even willingly faced the possibility of martyrdom for confessing their faith.
Christ came to bring Life to us, who were dead in Adam, because He Himself is “the Way, the Truth and the Life.” This is the foundation which the first Christians, from St. Paul the Apostle onward, understood as the key to salvation: that “forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil…abolishing death and bringing life an immortality to light” through the Gospel (Hebrews 2:14; II Timothy 1:10).

I will attempt to contrast the understanding of the Eastern and Western Churches about the meaning of salvation.

More to come!