Volume 2, Number 1 (Fall 2004)
Understanding Christ's Satisfaction Today
Paul J. LaChance
Saint Anselm College
ABSTRACT
Anselm's theory of satisfaction atonement has come under fire from many
quarters. Satisfaction is understood to be tied up with violence and to promote oppression, child abuse, and a self-destructive spirituality. The problem, howeve, is not simply that St. Anselm employed forensic language and highlighted justice over mercy. The difficulty lies in a proper understanding of the nature and non-existence of evil, the sovereignty of providence over suffering, and God's transcendent solution to the problem of evil. Such insights were commonplace for the early Christians and well articulated in St. Augustine and Boethius. It is in this context that I will propose to read St. Anselm and to understand the meaning of satisfaction atonement with the help of Fr. Bernard Lonergan's appropriation of St. Anselm's disjunction aut poena, aut satisfactio.
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