Atonement

We are quite deep into Lent; therefore, with Holy Week on the horizon, I thought it would be interesting to mention the life and philosophy of Peter Abelard.  All of what follows is from different sources. 

According to his autobiography (the famous History of My Troubles), Peter Abelard was born the son of a knight, but he gave up his inheritance and a potential military career to pursue philosophy. He traveled throughout France, studying with various masters and often stirring up quarrels between them.

He studied under the famous nominalist Roscelin, William of Champeaux (a realist), and Anselm of Laon, but was dissatisfied with all of his teachers. Abelard began teaching himself, and he writes that his rivals did not take kindly to the competition and he endured a great deal of persecution.

Abelard moved to Paris, where he became a well-known teacher of philosophy and theology. Around 1118, Abelard was hired to be a private tutor to young Héloïse, niece of Canon Fulbert (a clergyman in the cathedral of Paris). Abelard and Héloïse fell in love, had a son they called Astrolabe, then secretly married. When Canon Fulbert discovered this, he had Abelard castrated and Héloïse sent away to a convent. Abelard then withdrew to the monastery of Saint-Denis near Paris and made the unwilling Héloïse become a nun at Argenteuil outside Paris. They would not see each other again for 10 years.

Theologically, Abelard is best known for what is often called a "moral theory of atonement." Traditional views of the atonement, such as Anselm’s held that Christ's death paid a debt, either to God or to the Devil, that humans could not pay ourselves, but Abelard approached the matter from a more subjective angle. He explained that Christ's life and death were such radical demonstrations of the love of God that we are moved to love God in response, and God then forgives us on the basis of that love, and of the intercessory prayers of Christ.

Abelard’s key verse in understanding the death of Jesus was, “Greater love hath no man that this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends.” Abelard argued against the idea that God demanded the death of an innocent person to satisfy God’s honor or wrath.

Abelard made significant contributions to Christian thought in the areas of ethics and sin. He controversially taught that humans are not born with original guilt, as no person can be guilty for the sin of another. We do suffer the effects of Adam's sin in that we have a corrupted will and inclination towards evil, but there is no guilt until we have agreed with or acted upon the inclination. He also argued that whether an act is good or evil depends entirely on one's intention. 

Abelard’s ideas/philosophy clashed with Anselm who asked the question: why did God become human? His theory, described in his book Why God Became Man, is known as Satisfaction Theory. Anselm thought the idea that God had to pay a ransom to Satan or to death was beneath God. Instead, he theorized that Jesus did pay the ransom to God. God’s infinite honor was insulted by finite human sin. Only someone on the same level as God could pay the debt owed by human sin. So, God became man in Jesus to satisfy God’s honor. Anselm did not emphasize God’s wrath. That emphasis came later with John Calvin, who added wrath to Anselm’s theory. (end)

I’m drawn to Abelard.  His view is attractive and an interesting counter view to that of Anselm.  Anselm is important, but I, like Father Richard Rohr, believe a key understanding of atonement is from John Duns Scotus, a 13th century theologian. Duns Scotus believed that, “Jesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity (it did not need changing)! Jesus came to the mind of humanity about God.”

Deacon David Pierce