Anselm of Canterbury

We use the word “brilliant” much too often. “He pitched a brilliant game.” “She gave a brilliant performance.” Enough already! Yet Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) was, by all accounts, a perfectly brilliant theologian. He was widely regarded as the most original thinker of the eleventh century and one of the ablest minds in the Middle Ages. His father wanted him to go into politics, but Anselm was far more interested in research and privacy. He sought to join a monastery at fifteen, but his father interfered. Upon his father’s death, Anselm became a monk at twenty-seven and eventually abbot of a monastery in Normandy, France. He preferred to labor in obscurity, but his enormous intellect could not be denied. His contemporaries asked him to help them think through the meaning of the cross, an appropriate question to ponder in Holy Week. Anselm fled in exile in AD 1097 after locking horns with King William II over the right of kings to interfere in church matters. He retreated to a small town in Italy and polished off his definitive work, Cur Deus Homo or translated into English, Why God Became Man. Anselm reasoned from Scripture that people owe an enormous debt to God that can never be repaid so Jesus took on flesh to pay this debt in full. As fully divine and fully human, Christ is uniquely qualified to serve as our go-between. As God, Jesus perfectly satisfies the demands of justice that sin must be punished and, in his humanity, pays the penalty in our place. The result is an ingenious solution to the problem posed by sin. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross achieves justice for sin and mercy for sinners. Anselm’s prayer for Holy Week is a fitting way to center our day in prayer: