"What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us, just a stranger on the bus trying to make his way home, like a holy rolling stone, back up to heaven all alone, nobody calling on the phone, except for the Pope maybe in Rome."

These words sung by Joan Osborne talk about what if God was one of us. But God did come to earth as Jesus Christ almost 2000 years ago albeit in a very different context to the song, and this awesome event has caused a lot of discussion, over the reasons for this incarnation and the atonement between God and man. Many theories of why this event happened have been put forward, one such being the "satisfaction" theory advocated originally by St Anselm of Canterbury in his book titled Cur Deus homo?, whereby Christ repays humanity's debt of sin to God by his death. Another theory is the classic "victory" theory put forward by writers of the early church who furthered the New Testament image of Christ as victor.

The Catholic medieval theologian, St Anselm, wrote his theory of atonement in 1098, the contextual masterpiece Cur Deus homo? simply in English: "Why a God-Man?". Anselm, living in a feudal period, where t

Gregory of Nyssa and Rufinus of Aquileia took it one step further adding the "victory" element, in saying that Jesus Christ was "bait and hook" for the Devil, to eventually "catch" him and bring about his downfall. "...in order to secure that the ransom in our behalf might be easily accepted by him who required it [Satan], the, Deity was hidden under the veil of our nature, that so, as with ravenous fish, the hook of the Deity might be gulped down along with the bait of flesh, and thus, life being introduced into the house of death, and light shining in darkness, that which is diametrically opposed to light and life might vanish; for it is not in the nature of darkness to remain when light is present, or of death to exist when life is active." In saying this Gregory of Nyssa is putting forward the idea that Satan's acceptance of the "ransom" was Christ's victory, the "gates of hell were broken".

Some common words found in the essay are:
Gregory Nyssa, Summa Theologica, God-Man Anselm, Jesus Christ, Satan Deity, God Satan, Cur Deus, Zion Jacob, Christ Romans, God God, gregory nyssa, worth god, jesus christ, god death, classic victory theory, bait hook, classic victory, church forward, deus homo, cur deus, cur deus homo, nature christ,
Approximate Word count = 1496
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)