Anselm of Canterbury

1033-1109 · Italian (Aosta), monk of Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury · Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysics, Philosophical Theology, Christology

Credo ut intelligam — I believe in order that I may understand.

A boy from Aosta in the Burgundian Alps drifted north to the monastery of Bec in Normandy, fell under the spell of its great teacher Lanfranc, and ended his life — reluctantly, embroiled in bitter quarrels with English kings over the rights of the Church — as Archbishop of Canterbury. Anselm of Canterbury was the most important Western theologian between Augustine and Aquinas, and his motto names his whole method: credo ut intelligam, I believe in order that I may understand. Faith comes first, but reason does real work within it.

Topics Anselm of Canterbury addresses

• the ontological argument
• that than which nothing greater can be thought
• the Fool of Psalm 14
• Gaunilo's Lost Island objection
• necessary being
• fides quaerens intellectum
• sola ratione
• the satisfaction theory of atonement
• the necessity of the incarnation
• honor Dei and satisfactio
• truth as rectitudo
• rectitudo voluntatis
• free choice and the Fall
• foreknowledge and freedom
• predestination and grace
• rationes necessariae
• fitting reasons and congruence
• per se and per aliud existence
• the Supreme Good
• one Supreme Truth and derivative truths
• truth of propositions and truth of will
• the rejection of the devil-ransom theory
• original sin as inherited lack of justice
• the hypostatic union

Converse with Anselm of Canterbury on Symposium. Every reply is grounded in Anselm of Canterbury's own writing and cites the page it came from. The corpus is public-domain text.