Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109), born at Aosta, monk and then abbot of Bec in Normandy, and from 1093 archbishop of Canterbury, where he twice went into exile rather than concede the church’s liberty to the king. He is the father of scholastic theology: fides quaerens intellectum, faith seeking understanding, reasoning from what the believer already holds rather than from authority alone. The ontological argument and the satisfaction theory of the atonement are both his.
Works (4)
- Cur Deus Homo — Why God Became Man (1094–98), a dialogue with the monk Boso and the classic statement of the satisfaction theory of the atonement: sin is an infinite dishonour to God which man owes and cannot pay, and God alone can pay but does not owe — so the one who makes satisfaction must be both God and man. (49 notes)
- In Behalf of the Fool — The first and most famous objection to the ontological argument, with its answer. Gaunilo, a monk of Marmoutiers, writes on behalf of the fool of Psalm 14 — if the argument worked, he says, it would prove a perfect lost island into existence. Anselm replies that the argument holds only of that than which nothing greater can be conceived. (12 notes)
- Monologium — The earlier and longer of the two meditations (1076), written at his monks’ request as an example of meditation on the grounds of faith. It argues from the degrees of goodness in things up to the supreme Being, then treats the divine nature, the Word, and the Trinity — reasoning throughout, as Anselm insisted, by reason alone and without appeal to Scripture’s authority. (80 notes)
- Proslogium — Written 1077–78 as Fides quaerens intellectum, “faith seeking understanding.” It opens in prayer and arrives, in Chapters 2–4, at the argument that God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived — the ontological argument, which has been in dispute ever since. Gaunilo’s objection and Anselm’s reply are in In Behalf of the Fool. (27 notes)