I plan to publish it for discussion in short installments as Catholic-Orthodox caucus threads. All Christians as well as non-Christians are very welcome, but I ask all to maintain the caucus discipline: no interconfessional attacks, no personal attacks, and no off-topic posts. Avoid mentioning confessions outside of the caucus for any reason.
Previous:
Cur Deus Homo I-III
Cur Deus Homo III-V
Cur Deus Homo VI-VIII: Is God Omnipotent and Wise?
Cur Deus Homo IX-X: Did The Father Wish Christ To Die?
Cur Deus Homo XI-XIV: God's Honor, Compassion, and Justice
Cur Deus Homo XV-XVIII: Men and Angels, Perfection and Election
Cur Deus Homo XIX-XX: No Satisfaction
Cur Deus Homo XXI-XXIII: Enormity of Sin
Cur Deus Homo XXIV-XXV: Unhappiness of Man
Cur Deus Homo Book Second I-IV: Holy, Happy Man
Cur Deus Homo Book Second V-VII: The Necessity of God-Man
Cur Deus Homo Book Second VIII: The Necessity of the Virgin Mary
Cur Deus Homo Book Second IX-X: The Sinless Word
Cur Deus Homo Book Second XI: Christ Chose To Die
Cur Deus Homo Book Second XII-XV: Christ's Death Removes Sin
Cur Deus Homo Book Second XVI: Christ, Mary, Adam, Eve
The summary:
We know that Christ chose to die (Cur Deus Homo Book Second XI: Christ Chose To Die), but now we have a new difficulty, as we realize that the Virgin had to be purified from sin before He was even born, yet her purity is the result of His death. From this, it seems that Christ died of necessity that had been fixed prior to His birth.
The answer is that Christ had the power to preserve His life, yet it was His free decision to lay down His life. His desire then becomes a necessity of its own, since no external power exists to make God change his mind: "no desire of God is at all constrained; but that it freely maintains itself in his own unchangeableness".
The next difficulty is that Christ the man still seems to be under a necessity to die. Indeed, even though His was a fixed and unchangeable desire to die, "it still remains certain that he could not avoid death, but that it was a necessary thing for him to die", Boso inquires.
To understand this, we need to distinguish between coercive necessity and necessity of itself:
For when we say that God cannot do a thing, we do not deny his power; on the contrary, we imply that he has invincible authority and strength. For we mean simply this, that nothing can compel God to do the thing which is said to be impossible for him....
when we affirm that it is necessary for God to utter truth, and never to lie, we only mean that such is his unwavering disposition to maintain the truth that of necessity nothing can avail to make him deviate from the truth, or utter a lie. When, then, we say that that man (who, by the union of persons, is also God, the Son of God) could not avoid death, or the choice of death, after he was born of the virgin, we do not imply that there was in him any weakness with regard to preserving or choosing to preserve his life, but we refer to the unchangeableness of his purpose, by which he freely became man for this design, viz., that by persevering in his wish he should suffer death. And this desire nothing could shake
Even with man, we can see these two aspects of necessity, coerced or antecedent and intrinsic or subsequent:
when one has freely determined to do some good action, and afterwards goes on to complete it, though, if unwilling to pay his vow, he could be compelled to do so, yet we must not say that he does it of necessity, but with the same freedom with which he made the resolution....
There is an antecedent necessity which is the cause of a thing, and there is also a subsequent necessity arising from the thing itself
Anselm concludes,
[N]o necessity preceded his will. Wherefore if [things Christ willed] were not save by his will, then, had he not willed they would not have existed. So then, no one took his life from him, but he laid it down of himself and took it again; for he had power to lay it down and to take it again, as he himself said.
The conversation can now turn to the question of "how that payment is made to God for the sins of men"
keep alive