SOURCE: Brown, Montague. “Anselm's Argument for the Necessity of Incarnation.” Proceedings of the PMR Conference (1994): 39-52.

In the following essay, Brown evaluates and ultimately rejects Anselm's rational claims in his Cur Deus Homo regarding the necessity of God's Incarnation as Christ in order to save humanity.

In Cur deus homo, Anselm presents a rational argument for the necessity of the Incarnation, an argument suitable for convincing nonbelievers that the Incarnation is not only possible (that is, it does not involve a contradiction), but can be shown, by natural reason alone, to be necessary. Since there are many (believers as well as unbelievers) who do not think that reason can even prove the existence of God, such a claim as Anselm's is rather surprising. Is Anselm's claim credible? In our present inquiry, four subjects are involved—

(1) Anselm's overall project.

(2) The principles of Anselm's method in Cur deus homo.

(3) The...