Faith Seeking Understanding
Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message
April 21, 2016
Today is the feast day of St.
Anselm of Canterbury, who died on this day in 1109. He is known today best as the scholastic
theologian who gave the definition of theology as “faith seeking understanding”
(fides quaerens intellectum), and
developed the ontological proof of the existence of God and the satisfaction
theory of atonement.
The ontological proof states
that the existence of God is implied in the very idea of God, since God is “the
thing than which nothing better can be conceived” and if non-existent, then
less than the idea of a God that actually exists. Many moderns take this as a mere play on
words or circular reasoning rather than a serious logical proof. But the idea is powerful—the idea of God
implies its own existence; trusting God (having “faith”) implies by its nature
the existence of God, or, indeed, that God is existence or being itself.
Anselm based his understanding
of the atonement on his own society’s code of feudal honor: a slight against
the honor of a feudal Lord had to be paid by a social equal. The idea was applied to God: God as perfect and eternal could only have a
perfect and eternal peer pay the price (through punishment) of human sin. This was, according to Anslem “Why God became
man” (Cur Deus homo factus est) and
died on the cross. The idea of
transferred punishment, first expressed as such in Anslem, became the basis for
the Renaissance and modern doctrine of atonement where transferred
punishment is the principal or only thing at work in atonement. As popular as it later
became, the idea is plagued with a basic problem: Scripture teaches that Jesus saved us from
ourselves and our sins, not from God.
Though elements of transferred punishment show up in various passages of
scripture, it is never expressed as such in the Bible. Most modern theologians seek for broader and
less problematic understandings of the Cross.
Whether or not we like his ontological
proof or theology of satisfaction of God’s honor, Anselm is still a model for
us. He was a person of great
spirituality and intentional prayer.
This is seen in how he begins the Proslogion
(“Additional Comment”) where he introduces the ontological argument:
“Come now, O poor human child, turn a while from business, hide for a little time from restless thoughts, cast away troublesome cares, put aside wearisome distractions. Give yourself a little leisure to converse with God, and rest awhile in Him. Enter into the secret chamber of your heart: leave everything outside except for God and what may help you seek God. When you have shut the door, then seek God! Say now, O my whole heart, say now to God, I seek your face; Your face, Lord, I seek! Come now then, O Lord my God, teach my heart when and how I may seek you, where and how I may find you? O Lord, if you are not here, where else may I seek you? If you are everywhere, why do I not see you, since you are here present? Surely indeed you dwell in the light that no one can approach. But where is that light unapproachable? Or how may I approach it since it is unapproachable? Or who shall lead me and bring me into it that I may see you in it? Again, by what tokens shall I know you, in what form shall I look for you? … O Lord, I am bent downwards, I cannot look up: raise me up, that I may lift my eyes to heaven. … I will seek you with longing for you. I will long after you in seeking you, I will find you by loving you, I will love you in finding you. … I seek not, O Lord, to search out your depth, but I desire in some measure to understand your truth, which my heart trusts and loves. Nor do I seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe that I may understand. For this too I believe, that unless I first believe, I shall not understand.”
Grace and peace,
Fr. Tony+
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