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Why God Had to Have an Immaculate Mother
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
Abstract
Anselm's argument for the salvific necessity of the Incarnation in his Cur Deus Homo is justly famous and elegantly simple: only man ought; only God can; therefore, only a God-man both ought and can (atone for sin). Unfortunately it is a paralogism, trading on an equivocal use of ‘ought’. It is not difficult, however, to reconceive the meaning of the terms ‘ought’ and ‘can’ in a way that both renders the argument formally valid and deepens our christology. Sin may be conceived, per Anselm's own insistence, as a condition of the human soul in its relation to God, a failure of the human will to establish itself in harmonious union with the divine will. If the integrity of created human nature requires that its psychological conditions are propagated together with it, then one who has both the duty and ability to atone for sin must be descended from Adam but must enjoy the original justice of the soul that Adam rejected and deformed in himself. Thus, systematically reconstructing Anselm's argument has the surprising consequence of enabling us to posit an argument for the salvific necessity of the Immaculate Conception as a preparatory stage in the hypostatic union of the Incarnation.
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References
1 1 Pet 3:10.
2 ‘De Immaculata Conceptione Beatae Virginis’, Ordinatio III, dist. 3, q.1. For an English translation, see the second of the eponymous questions in Wolter, Allan B. O.F.M., John Duns Scotus, Four Questions on Mary (Saint Bonaventure, New York: The Franciscan Institute, 2000)Google Scholar.
3 Anselm, Cur Deus Homo I.xi.i; emphasis is mine.
4 ‘Anselm on Christ's Atoning Sacrifice in Human Sacrifice’ in Finsterbusch, , Lange, , and Roemheld, , editors, Jewish and Christian Tradition (Leiden: Boston, 2007)Google Scholar.
5 Eph 1:10.
6 Gen 1:26.
7 2 Pet 1:3.
8 Here it should be pointed out that I am assuming with Anselm (see De Conceptu Viriginali et de Originali Peccato, 2 and 7) that original sin consists in the privation of original justice in the rational soul of human nature. The condition is inherited from Adam through sexual transmission simply because such is the original created means for the propagation of human nature that is proper to that nature. The elaboration of Anselm's argument that I provided in Section II, was intended to make it especially clear why, in view of the ontic relationality of human nature, justice and sin are conditions of the soul in its relation to God that characterize it essentially unto life or death. I am staying neutral on the question of how concupiscence of the sexual act bears on the transmission of original justice/sin.
9 While being at odds with Scripture in many ways, including the messianic prophecies of the Davidic covenant, perhaps none is more striking than the way it mocks the title “the Son of Man”, apparently Jesus’ own preferred style for himself in the Gospels.
10 In order to avoid being misled by the metaphor of containment, this could just as well be phrased to say “his human nature must be characterized by all and only those conditions that characterize hers, including the condition of original sin or sinlessness”. In this way we are careful to keep in mind the ontic relationality of sin.
11 Mt 28:18-20.
12 Lk 24:49.
13 Jn 3:5.
14 Ps 45:16.
15 Col 1:20.
16 Rom 8:29.
17 Eph 1:5, Gal 3:27.
18 Eph 1:4.
19 God's wisdom requires this also, lest it be that God created man in vain.
20 For an exposition of this point see Palamas’, Gregory ‘Sermon on the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple’ in Mary the Mother of God: Sermons (Mount Thabor Publishing, 2005)Google Scholar.
21 Ps 68:18, Eph 4:8-10.
22 From the Canon of Pascha.
23 Is 61:2, Lk 4:18-21.
24 1 Cor 15:45.
25 In accordance with premise (2’’), p.6.
26 Prv 4:23, Jn 1:24, 5:26, Acts 3:15.
27 Lk 1:35.
28 Lk 1:28.
29 Is 11:1.
30 Col 2:9.
31 Ps 103:30.
32 Cf. Jn 17:3.
33 Rom 12:6.
34 Ps 85:16.
35 Rom 8:29.
36 Lest it be thought that this is somehow a limitation or weakness on God's part.
37 Acts 3:15.
38 Mt 20:28, 27:52-52, 1 Tim 2:6, 1 Pet 3:19.
39 Cf. Jn 10:28 and the anaphora prayer preceding the epiclesis in St. John Chysostom's Divine Liturgy.
40 Perhaps by blessing the natural conjugal union of Mary's parents with a supernatural purity, but in any case directly intervening in a supernatural way in the event of her natural generation so that she might enjoy original justice. Whatever its manner, this is the same possibility offered to us in the baptismal sacrament instituted by Christ.
41 2 Cor 5:21.