Catholic Tradition & Redemption (AQA GCSE Religious Studies B): Revision Note

Salvation metaphors in Irenaeus and Anselm

Saint Irenaeus

• Saint Irenaeus of Lyon (c AD 130–202) was one of the leading teachers of the early Christian Church

• Irenaeus uses the metaphor of a tree to compare:

  • The event that created the need for salvation (the fall of Adam and Eve) 

  • The event that brought about salvation (Jesus’s sacrificial death)

• Irenaeus highlights the parallels between these two events by comparing two trees

  • The tree of the knowledge of good and evil

  • The tree of the cross

• Humans were lost through one tree

  • By eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve disobeyed God and were lost

• Humans were saved by the tree of the cross

  • Jesus showed total obedience to God by dying on the cross, and this brought salvation from sin

• Adam and Eve broke humanity’s relationship with God through their disobedience

  • Jesus restored humanity’s relationship with God by accepting God’s will

• Adam and Eve brought death to humanity by separating humans from God through sin

  • Jesus brought life by offering eternal life in heaven with God to everyone

• Saint Irenaeus presents Jesus as the “new Adam”, who succeeds where Adam had failed and restores humanity to its intended nature

• This theory is sometimes known as the recapitulation theory

Saint Anselm

• Saint Anselm (AD1033–1109) was a leading Christian theologian who served as Archbishop of Canterbury

• Saint Anselm used a metaphor from slavery to explain Jesus’s redemption

• He compared Jesus’s death with the idea of “paying a ransom”

  • At the time of slavery, a slave could be freed by paying their owner a sum of money. The payment was known as a ransom

• After the fall of Adam and Eve, humans became slaves to sin

• The only way to atone — or make up — for this is by showing total obedience to God

• Through his complete obedience to God, Jesus “paid the ransom” for the sins of all humans, which only he could do — humans could not repay this debt on their own

• This meant that Jesus’s sacrifice was a “satisfaction” to God’s honour, allowing all humans to be freed from sin

• This theory is sometimes known as the satisfaction theory of atonement

Views on Irenaeus’s and Anselm’s metaphors

• Saint Irenaeus’s metaphor shows a close parallel between the events that led to humanity needing redemption and those that brought about redemption

• It helps believers to understand that Jesus’s death and resurrection were a complete victory over sin and death

• Some Christians may disagree with the way that Irenaeus interpreted the story of Adam and Eve

• Saint Anselm’s metaphor is popular because it illustrates the idea of humans being slaves to sin very well, and this reflects how many people feel about sin

• Some Christians may not like the idea that humans play no part in salvation because everything was achieved by Jesus

  • However, others believe that it demonstrates the complete power of God

• Some Christians do not like the idea of a “ransom” payment, questioning to whom it would be paid. This suggests that there may be someone greater than God

  • However, others believe that paying the ransom was necessary to show obedience to God and atone for past disobedience