c. 1097–1100

Anselm, Why God Became Man: satisfaction of God's honor

In the treatise Cur Deus homo, written as a dialogue with the monk Boso, Anselm demonstrates the absolute necessity of the incarnation, taking original sin and God's love and justice as given. He rejects the theory of a debt to the devil: the debt is owed to God. Man, by refusing to obey, dishonored God; honor is restored either by punishment or by satisfaction, and God cannot simply forgive without satisfaction, otherwise he would give way to disorder. The debt is so great that only God can pay it, but man must pay it, so the satisfaction is given by the God-man: being sinless, he is obliged only to obey, and his voluntary sufferings and death are a gift exceeding the debt, the reward for which passes to people as forgiveness. González calls the treatise epoch-making: most later Western theologians interpreted the work of Christ in its light.