Volume 2, Number 1 (Fall 2004)
A Christological Renaissance: The Chalcedonian Turn of St. Anselm of Canterbury
Michael J. Deem
Saint Louis University
ABSTRACT
This paper claims Anselm of Canterbury to be the first significant writer of the Latin Church after Pope Leo I to successfully apply the Chalcedonian doctrine in a fashion that is attentive to the person of Christ while accounting for the metaphysical accord of his two natures within the salvific economy. Rather than referring to Christ's humanity only in reference to his divinity or attempting to safeguard his humanity through the employment of an adoptionist or Nestorian framework, Anselm provides a tangible soteriological model that does not compromise the unity of Christ's person. After tracing the Christology of the Latin Church from Leo to Anselm, this paper presents Anselm as the theological successor of Leo in the Latin Church as he served to orient subsequent Latin theology towards a fuller understanding of the historical and soteriological implications of the Incarnation.
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