Quote:
Originally Posted by kerry edwards
I think it's an open question as to whether God gives the same gift to all his children. The idea of predestination had been around a long time, at least since Augustine. So some people are predestined to heaven and some to hell. I don't see anything in Anselm which changes that idea. Sinners still can't be rational from Anselm's point of view, as far as I can see.
It's on my list of books to read, but it may take a while to get to it.
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What I mean is, with the Jews and the greeks (partial ecxeption to Alexander) you don't have them going into other lands and saying "accept our saviour, who has made us a place in 'heaven', and you will be on our team, and we will go forward together in his service" Which seems a big part of the spread of the 'west' to places like Japan and South Korea and so on where they have adopted a lot of western institutions.
This is only one facet of the whole piece of modern democracy, but might carry the germ of the idea that we can all rise to the greatest of heights and we are all equal, on a fundamental level, before god.
I'm not saying Anselm had this whole picture of things working, but that he may have brought some 'endowed by our creator' to the table of a good old fashion rational diet or vise versa.