I am deeply grateful to Robert Ellsberg for the following very brief summary of the teaching of John Duns Scotus in the 13th century about how we are saved:
"Duns Scotus defined God as infinite love. Disagreeing with those who taught that the incarnation was required to render repayment for original sin, he believed it was willed through eternity as an expression of God's love, and hence God's desire for consummated union with creation. Our redemption by the cross was likewise an expression of God's love and compassion rather than an appeasement of God's anger or a form of compensation for God's injured majesty.
"He believed that knowledge of God's love should evoke a loving response on the part of humanity. He wrote, 'I am of the opinion that God wished to redeem us in this fashion principally in order to draw us to his love.' Through our own loving self-gift, he argued, we join with Christ in becoming 'co-lovers' of the Holy Trinity.
"For Scotus, created things point to their Creator through their individuality and uniqueness."
(This summary appears as the November 8 selection from Ellsberg's Blessed Among Us in the excellent monthly booklet for daily prayer, Give Us This Day, published by Liturgical Press.)
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