Friday, July 29, 2016

A Voice from the Past - Anselm

For we affirm that the Divine nature is beyond doubt impassible, and that God cannot at all be brought down from his exaltation, nor toil in anything which he wishes to effect. But we say that the Lord Jesus Christ is very God and very man, one person in two natures, and two natures in one person. When, therefore, we speak of God as enduring any humiliation or infirmity, we do not refer to the majesty of that nature, which cannot suffer; but to the feebleness of the human constitution which he assumed. And so there remains no ground of objection against our faith. For in this way we intend no debasement of the Divine nature, but we teach that one person is both Divine and human. In the incarnation of God there is no lowering of the Deity; but the nature of man we believe to be exalted.

Anselm, 1033-11000, Cur Deus Homo, Book I, Chapter VII, (translated by Sidney Norton Dean, Proslogium, Monologium, An Appendix on Behalf of the Fool by Gaunilon and Cur Deus Homo, The Open Court Publishing Company, 1926, p.123)

What does it mean for Jesus to be both God and man? What can we understand about what such a situation would be like?

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