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Excerpt from Anselm's Theory of the Atonement: The Bohlen Lectures, 1908 Not all the varying formulations of theology can claim to express the essential and ultimate truth, and we are forced to separate these historical varia tions from the truth itself. In different ages, differ ent aspects and understandings of truth come to be emphasised and made prominent, owing sometimes to their denial and the subsequent controversy, and sometimes to the prevalence of ideas which inhere in the intellectual conditions of the age. When we discern the contemporary causes for a particular state ment, we are led to inquire whether it be a natural and inevitable inference from truths hitherto awaiting. Coordination; as, for example, in the Nicene defini tions concerning the deity of our Lord. At other times, however, we are compelled to discriminate be tween the original and permanent essence of a truth and the temporary and imperfect interpretation of it. The mere systematic statement of a doctrine, therefore, is of little value until the formula has been subjected to the criticism based upon the history of its successive stages. The scholastic spirit is the exact opposite of the critical and historical spirit but the latter is the spirit of our time, and its method is our accepted method of arriving at the truth. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.