The Anselms idea of satisfaction traces its origin to the views of Cur Deus Homo translated as Why God Become Man in English. It was a theory that was aimed at explaining as well as endeavoring at expounding why the incarnation and the death of Christ on the cross were necessary. To-date. The Anselm's inspiration remains to be high since it is held dearly in the churches of modern time. For instance, the Catholic theology fundamentals are solely founded on the views and doctrines that would be deduced from the Anselm. First articulated by St Anselm of Canterbury, the theories provide the means through which human beings would accomplish and gain salvation from God. That was aimed at restoring man's original holiness so that the happiness in God would be realized (Hogg, 165-168). That necessitated the restoration of man's ability to their original purpose of loving God, and that would only be attained through incarnation and atonement. This paper will be endeavoring at elucidating and giving further details on the relationship between the two but based on the philosophies and concepts of Anselm.
Having expounded on their similarities, it would be worthwhile if their relationships would be given further precedence based on the Anselm's idea of satisfaction. To comprehend the difference based on Anselm idea of happiness, one would ask why God opted to save human beings from their sins through His Son, Jesus. Certainly, there was not obligation that necessitated His actions. However, according to Anselm, we were saved thanks to the loving nature of God although understanding that sometimes becomes difficult (Wiles, Maurice, Edward, and Parvis, 78-83).
An additional angle that the distinction between incarnation and atonement based on the Anselm idea of satisfaction would be brought to light would be with the price of Jesus' goodness to humankind. Evidently, no worth and value would be attached to the actions that led to the saving of mankind through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. It does not matter how much good people might do nor does it matter how many times people offers they prayers. That would be attributed to the fact that no matter what man would offer God for His goodness, they would be dwarfed in comparison to the sinful nature. That marks the point where Anselm brings about the idea of incarnation since it marks the start of one's ability as well as right to repay the liability unsettled to God. As a result, the atonement and incarnation offer a sound response to the ideology revealed and remains to be so for many Christians to-date (Evans, 67-69). Thanks to the incarnation aspects, Jesus was able to incarnate and, as a result, was able to unite divine and human nature resulting in the reconciliation between God and humankind. That, according to the Anselm idea of satisfaction represents a greater debt towards God, who is entitled to submission and obedience with an objective of avoiding punishment in the long run. In other words, the human being are required to live a sinless life for the total correlation between incarnation and atonement to be fully comprehended. Hence, the reason many Christians worldwide endeavor at overcoming sin by living a faithful life to their creator and maker Gods (Belousek, 102-104).
In closing, it is without a shadow of doubt that that the Christian guideline on the matters of the two aspects, incarnation and atonement remains an enduring Christian topic since time immemorial. As to whether they both ought to be joined, or disjoint remains debatable to-date. However, the primary objective of incarnation remains to be the distinctive dominant creed while the doctrine of the atonement being second to that of incarnation. Hence, the fundamental distinction between incarnation and atonement would be held to God's will (Green, 11-14). That explains why individuals ought to develop a close understanding of the evil of punishment and the good of salvation required by salvation.
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