The aim of the paper is to highlight St. Anselm’s way of thinking about nature and order in the world created by God. God for Anselm is the highest nature, one which exists most fully; He possesses the fullness of being, because His essence is identical to His existence. He is the cause of all existing things and does not have a cause Himself, for He exists per se. The order of nature may be observed in two ways: when departing from the diversity of existing beings and when considering these beings before their creation, existing in the divine intellect as ideas and models, after which God called into existence particular objects.

The paper assumes that the modern period differs from earlier epochs in terms of thinking about universals: in the ancient and medieval dispute about universals, the general took precedence, and the subject of debates was the identity of what was individual. Ockham’s revolution of thinking in this area is one of the significant points of the beginning modernity. In this context, it is reasonable to ask to what extent classical soteriological concepts, created in the ancient climate marked by the primacy of universals, can be understood today, in an atmosphere of nominalism. After presenting the specificity of this issue, the article discusses three works of three authors, who are significant for the history of soteriology (Athanasius, Augustine, Anselm). The conclusions do not confirm the simple thesis about the indisputable primacy of thinking about “man as human nature” in the case of Athanasius and Augustine. But Anselm’s much later theory is consistently based on such thinking. Hence, the reflections of the first two authors, insofar as they emphasize the interpersonal salvific bond between God and man, seem to be still understandable today. On the other hand, Anselm’s conception, based on the perception of the work of salvation as an impact on human nature, easily exposes itself to narrow interpretations, which are inconsistent with the original intention of its author. Heil der Person oder der menschlichen Natur? Über ein Problem der heutigen Rezeption der traditionellen soteriologischen Motive.