Why the God man?
The fifth of Thomas Aquinas' proofs of God's existence was based on teleology (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In the eleventh century, one of the church’s most brilliant thinkers, Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, wrote three important works that have influenced the church ever since. In the field of Christian philosophy , he gave us his Monologium and his Proslogium ; in the field of systematic theology, he penned the great Christian classic Cur Deus Homo , which being translated means “Why the God-Man?” In this work, Anselm set forth the philosophical and theological foundations for an important aspect of the church’s understanding of the atonement of Christ , specifically the satisfaction view of the atonement. In it, Anselm argued that it was necessary for the atonement to take place in order to satisfy the justice of God. That viewpoint became the centerpiece of classical Christian orthodoxy in the Middle Ages , in terms of the church’s understanding of the work of Christ