Welcome to Defenders, the teaching class of Dr. William Lane Craig.

Today, the Doctrine of Christ, Part 15.

For more information and resources from Dr. Craig, go to reasonable faith.org.

Today we come to the so-called satisfaction theory of the atonement.

This was developed by none other than St. Anselm, who was the Archbishop of Canterbury

during the 11th century.

And yes, this is the same Anselm that gave us the ontological argument for the existence of God.

As if that weren't enough for his claim to fame, even more significant is Anselm's treatise on the atonement called Courdeus Homo, which being translated means, why did God become man? Why did God become man?

This is a work of unsurpassed importance in the history of the doctrine of the atonement. It constitutes a watershed

between the patristic and the medieval church. Although Anselm's comprehensive theory of the

atonement includes elements of the ransom theory of the church fathers, including God's victory over Satan and even a

rationale for God's not achieving atonement without the death of Christ. Nevertheless, the

fundamental thrust of Anselm's theory is very different from that of the church fathers,

and it forever altered Christian thinking on the doctrine of the atonement.

Anselm's main complaint about the ransom theory is that it's inadequate to explain why God would take the extraordinary step

of sending his son to suffer and die a horrible death in order to redeem mankind. An omnipotent

God could have freed mankind from the bondage to

Satan directly without any need of an incarnation. And you cannot claim that in doing so God

would have violated the rights that Satan has over man because man owes nothing

to the devil.

He has no rights over humanity.

And moreover, God owes the devil nothing but punishment and certainly needn't respect his

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