Talisker Tutorial's Great Books III Assignment 8 Study Questions

Great Books III Study Questions for Assignment 8

Study Questions For Anselm's, Cur Deus Homo ("Why God Became Man" in Oxford edition)

The study questions in bold print are the most important ones. Try to answer them all, but if time runs short in class we'll make sure to at least cover the bold print ones.

1. Preface. Where did Anselm begin this book? Where did he finish it? (Bonus question: Why was he in exile?) What do the two books (sections) of Cur Deus Homo contain?

Book One

2. Chap. 1. What motivated Anselm to write this book? What are the two reasons for the request that he write it? What is the subject of the book? For what kind of audience is it intended? What is the method of the book? Why is this method followed?

3. Chap. 2. What three reasons does Anselm give for his reluctance to answer "Boso's" questions? How does Boso answer him?

4. chaps. 3 and 6. What is the basic objection of the infidel, according to Boso?

5. How is it the devil torments man unjustly and yet the tormenting is justly deserved by man?

6. chaps. 8-10. How is it that Christ's obedience unto death was not compulsion, but free? What was he obedient *in*?

7. chap. 11. What is Anselm's definition of sin? What must satisfaction of sin involve?

8. chap. 12. Why cannot God simply set aside sin without demanding payment?

9. chap. 15. How can sin dishonor God without His honor being violated? (note the reference to the "circuit of the heavens"!)

10. chap. 20. What payment do we owe God for sin?

11. In chapters 20-23, Anselm gives four reasons that man cannot make satisfaction for his sins. What are they?

12. How is man's salvation by Christ "necessarily possible"? What is the simple logic Anselm uses?

Book Two

13. Chap. 1. For what purpose has man received the power of rational discernment?

14. Chap. 3. What proves the future resurrection of the body?

15. Chap. 4. What argument proves that God will save at least some of mankind in Christ? Compare again book 1, chap. 25.

16. Chap. 6 and 7. Summarize the argument that proves that it must be the God-Man who makes the atonement for sin.

17. Chap. 7 What is the argument that Christ must have two distinct natures?

18. Chap. 8. Why did the God-Man have to come from the race of Adam? Why did he have to be born of a woman? What do you think of these two arguments?

19. Chap. 10. In what sense could Christ not sin, and how does he deserve praise for resisting sin if it was impossible for him to sin?

20. Chap. 11. Are men by nature mortal? Why was it necessary that Christ suffer death voluntarily?

21. Chap. 15. What is the difference between a sin done knowingly and one done ignorantly? Do you agree that no man could knowingly slay the Lord?

22. Chap. 16. By what chain of reasoning does Anselm prove that Adam and Eve had to have been saved? (Bonus series on the angels: This chain of reasoning requires the preparatory argument back in book 1, chaps. 16-18. Can you summarize Anselm's position in those chapters?: why was the number of angels incomplete originally? why must the number of holy men be greater than the number of angels who fell? why can we not rejoice over their fall?)

23. Chap. 18b. If dying was the *better* thing for Christ to do, and He must always do the better thing or He would not be God, how can we say He was not *bound* to do it?

24. Chap. 19. How does Christ's death result in salvation for men?

25. Chap. 21. Why can the devil not be reconciled? (remember chapter 8)