Justice and Mercifulness of God in Anselm

A detailed Summary of Justice and Mercifulness of God in Anselm

In the world of traditional Christianity (or at least Anselm's Christianity) there are ultimately three types of people in relation to how God deals with them (save or punish). According to Anselm, people can be good and be saved; they can be wicked and be punished; or they can be wicked and be saved. (Pros. Ch.9) One may pose a question as to why God, perhaps, chooses not to punish some of the good. Anselm would argue that because God is supremely good it would go against his nature to punish good people. If God punished a good person, this would be unjust and God cannot be unjust because he is the supreme of anything that is better to be than not to be. (Mono. Ch.15) Because it is better to be just than unjust, God is just and, therefore, good (supremely). This, however, is not the topic to be discussed here.

Traditional Christianity holds that God forgives some wicked people and punishes other equally wicked people. Here is where we want to spend our time. This is to say, if there were two people standing before God who were equally wicked, He may choose to save one and punish the other. It is possible that He may save both or punish both, but the point is that He spares some wicked people who are every bit

On the idea of omniscience and omnipotence, it could also be possible that God (being both omniscient and omnipotent) has the ability to know how a person would react to being forgiven (a form of justice). Some of the wicked people would react better to the idea of being forgiven than others. God, in accordance to His ability to know everything, is able to determine which wicked people being forgiven would humble. At the same time, He is able to determine which of the wicked would not appreciate His forgiveness and have cold hearts. In this manner, God would justly be able to decide which wicked people to save and forgive and which to punish.

Having decently established a means as to why Christians ought not to reject the theory that God forgives some wicked people and punishes others who are equally wicked, it seems logical to examine upon what basis a just God might decide which wicked person to punish and which to save. Before analyzing what Anselm has to say about this, we should look at some possible ideas on which God might justly base his decision.

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Approximate Word count = 2381
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Religion

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