Anselm of Canterbury
Faith seeks understanding – and God, as the greatest conceivable being, must exist, because existing is greater than being only imagined.
Placement
Often called the father of Scholasticism; the ontological argument: God as that than which nothing greater can be conceived.
Key ideas
- Ontological argument
- Credo ut intelligam
Influence
Influenced by 2
Augustine
influenced by
In the Monologion’s preface Anselm said that nothing in it disagrees with the Fathers, especially Augustine’s De Trinitate, whose image of the Trinity in the mind he used. Anselm, Monologion (1076), prologue; SEP “Saint Anselm”
Evidence: AI draft
Augustine › 354–430
Boethius
influenced by
Anselm’s dialectic, as in De grammatico, works with the Aristotelian logic of the Categories and On Interpretation, known to him through Boethius’ translations and commentaries. Anselm, De grammatico; J. Marenbon, Early Medieval Philosophy (1983); SEP “Saint Anselm”
Evidence: AI draft
Boethius › c. 477–524
Influenced 2
Bonaventure
influenced
Bonaventure accepted Anselm’s argument from ‘that than which nothing greater can be thought’, holding God’s existence indubitable to a rightly disposed mind. Bonaventure, Quaestiones disputatae de mysterio Trinitatis q. 1 a. 1; SEP “Saint Bonaventure”; SEP “Ontological Arguments”
Evidence: AI draft
Bonaventure › c. 1221–1274
John Duns Scotus
influenced
Scotus took over Anselm’s two affections of the will, for advantage and for justice, and ‘coloured’ his argument for God’s existence (Ordinatio I d. 2). Anselm, De casu diaboli; Duns Scotus, Ordinatio I d. 2 p. 1 qq. 1–2; II d. 6 q. 2; SEP “John Duns Scotus”
Evidence: AI draft
John Duns Scotus › c. 1266–1308
Criticism
Criticized by 1
Thomas Aquinas influenced
influenced ✓
Aquinas took over Anselm’s account of Christ’s death as satisfaction in modified form (Summa theologiae III q. 48), while rejecting his proof from the concept of God. Anselm, Cur Deus homo (1098); Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae III q. 48 a. 2; I q. 2 a. 1; SEP “Thomas Aquinas”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
criticised by
Aquinas denied that God’s existence is self-evident to us: from the meaning of ‘God’ it follows only that God exists in the mind, not in reality. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I q. 2 a. 1 ad 2; Summa contra gentiles I.10–11
Evidence: AI draft
Thomas Aquinas › c. 1225–1274
Works
- c. 1078Proslogion
The ontological argument for the existence of God.
Position
Anselm’s motto was “faith seeking understanding” (fides quaerens intellectum): believers should use reason to grasp what they already believe. In the Proslogion he presented the famous ontological argument: God is “that than which nothing greater can be conceived”. If such a being existed only in the mind, one could conceive of a greater one existing in reality – a contradiction; so God must exist. The monk Gaunilo objected at once with his perfect island. Descartes and Leibniz restated the argument, while Kant’s critique became the classic objection. In Why God Became Man he explained the incarnation through his theory of satisfaction.
Life & context
Anselm was born in Aosta in northern Italy and entered the Benedictine abbey of Bec in Normandy, drawn there by the teacher Lanfranc; he later became its abbot. In 1093 he was made Archbishop of Canterbury, where disputes with the English kings over the rights of the Church twice drove him into exile. He was later canonised and named a Doctor of the Church.
Further main works
- Monologion (1076)
- Why God Became Man (Cur Deus Homo, 1098)
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