So the redemptive work of Christ is grounded in the divine intention to effect salvation for humanity. His argument is based upon two key premises: without the incarnation the salvation of the human race would be impossible salvation is God’s intention.
He engages in what we would call a work of contextual theology. This restoration needed to exceed what had been taken away.Īnselm draws on this socio-cultural framework to construct a theory of salvation from God in and through Christ. The degree of injustice and thus the requisite level of satisfaction was measured according the social status of the injured party. The restoration of honor occurred through the punishment of the guilty or by the guilty party making satisfaction to the one offended. If the honor of a superior was impugned in some way, there was the threat of social chaos. In feudal societies, the interpersonal bond between the lord and the vassal guaranteed the order of society. Emulating Anselm’s dialogue with the monk Boso in Cur Deus Homo, Johnson converses with an imaginary interlocutor (“Clara”) in Creation and the Cross.īriefly stated, in Cur Deus Homo (Why God Became Human), Anselm developed his theory of satisfaction against the backdrop of a feudal culture. In pursuing both of these aims, she endeavors to construct a theology of accompaniment. Johnson has two principal aims in this book: to illumine the deficiencies in Anselm’s theory, particularly its view of Jesus’ death as required by God to make recompense for sin and to broaden the Christian theology of salvation in a way that will embrace other creatures and the entire cosmos. Though the Church has never defined as official doctrine any particular theory of the saving work of Christ, Anselm’s theory of satisfaction has sometimes been treated in theology and preaching as if it were official doctrine.
In Creation and the Cross, Johnson engages in a sustained, critical dialogue with Anselm of Canterbury (1033/4–1109). This book builds on her earlier books on the mystery of God (She Who Is) and the theology of creation (Ask the Beasts). Her topic is soteriology – the exploration and articulation of the saving work of God in Jesus Christ. In this work, Elizabeth Johnson, a distinguished Catholic theologian who recently retired from Fordham University, offers another valuable contribution to the work of faith seeking understanding. Johnson, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2018. JohnsonĬreation and the Cross: The Mercy of God for a Planet in PerilĮlizabeth A. Johnson A Review of the Writings of Elizabeth A.
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