Tabletalk Magazine, October 2000: Saint Anselm of Canterbury

by Ligonier Ministries

Publisher:

Ligonier Ministries

, 2000

Overview

For more than thirty years, Tabletalk has existed as a magazine for laymen. Generally speaking, laymen receive either very little instruction in the weightier matters of the faith, or the instruction is too academic, thereby making the material largely inaccessible to average laymen. This is the reason Tabletalk exists — to bridge the gap between these two poles, to explain to the people of God important, biblical doctrines and events while admonishing them toward holy living.

Contributors include R.C. Sproul along with Wes Callihan, Robert Strimple, Wynn Kenyon, R.C. Sproul Jr., Robert Barnes, Sinclair Ferguson, Edmund Clowney, and Jim Spradlin. Tabletalk features articles about topics central to the Christian faith and daily, in-depth Bible studies.

Contents

• "Pulling Tandem" by R.C. Sproul
• "Anselm: Contra Mundam" by Wes Callihan
• "Cur Cur Deus Homo" by Robert Strimple
• "That Which None Greater" by Wynn Kenyon
• "Your Humble Servant" by R.C. Sproul Jr.
• "Improvisation for the Kingdom" by Robert Barnes
• "Lacking Prophecy, Have We Nothing?" by Sinclair Ferguson
• "Does God Have a Plan for Your Life?" by Edmund Clowney
• "'God's Minister'" by Jim Spradlin
• "Coram Deo"
• "On the Shoulders of Giants"
• "The Cultural Mind"
• "Tolle Lege"

Top Highlights

“Giants such as Saint Augustine and Saint Anselm understood that there is a difference between faith and reason, but though they carefully distinguished the two, they never resorted to separating or divorcing them. They saw a symbiotic relationship between the two.” (Page 6)

“Although Anselm stated that God’s honor would be preserved by either satisfaction being made or punishment being handed out, he also insisted (inconsistently) that God had to save a certain number of men and women in order to preserve His own honor as the One who had originally created humankind for happiness. John Calvin, on the other hand, affirmed that the holy God need not have saved anyone. The explanation of why He chose unworthy, guilty, hell-deserving sinners for salvation lies hidden in the unsearchable riches of His sovereign grace in Christ.” (Page 57)

“The most significant modification of Anselm’s theory by the Reformers was that they viewed the sufferings of Christ on the cross as penal, as the vicarious bearing of the penalty owing to the sins of men and women, rather than simply (as in Cur Deus Homo) as the voluntary offering of a gift of infinite value to the honor of God. Instead of Anselm’s disjunction, ‘either satisfaction or punishment,’ the Reformers offered the biblical doctrine, ‘satisfaction by punishment.’” (Page 57)

“In Anselm’s argument, the life of Christ seems to have only a rather negative significance: it was necessary that the God-man be sinless in His life so that the death He offered to God might not be something that He owed to God. The Reformers, on the other hand, saw the necessity not only of Christ’s vicarious death to satisfy the curse of the law, but also of His incarnate life of active obedience to fulfill the positive demand of the law.” (Page 57)

Praise for the Print Edition

Tabletalk has been a key ingredient in the diet of Christians conscious of their spiritual vitality.

—Michael S. Horton

Month by month, Tabletalk represents an oasis in a desert of false spirituality, mindless Christianity, and vapid conviction. Tabletalk represents theological rigor, biblical Christianity, and authentic Christian devotion. It is an antidote to the world of superficial Christianity. Read it and grow.

—R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

Tabletalk has been a wonderful resource in my own daily walk with the Lord.

—Ravi Zacharias

Product Details

• Title: Tabletalk Magazine, October 2000: Saint Anselm of Canterbury
• Executive Editor: R. C. Sproul
• Editor: Burk Parsons
• Series: Tabletalk
• Publisher: Ligonier Ministries
• Publication Date: October 2000
• Pages: 62

About Ligonier Ministries

R. C. Sproul is founder and president of Ligonier Ministries and president of Ligonier Academy. He also servers as the senior pastor of Saint Andrew’s in Sanford, Fla., and he has written more than seventy books including The Holiness of God, The Intimage Marriage, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith, Following the Cross, and the R. C. Sproul Exposition Collection.

Burk Parsons serves as editor of Tabletalk and associate pastor of Saint Andrew’s in Sanford, Fla., and he is editor of the books Assured by God: Living in the Fullness of God’s Grace and John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology.