Overview
Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) was a Benedictine theologian, prior and abbot of Bec, then archbishop of Canterbury amid investiture conflicts with English kings. Born in Aosta, he brought a rigorous “faith seeking understanding” to Latin scholastic theology. The Proslogion presents the famous ontological argument; Cur Deus Homo rethinks atonement. Handbook dates: 1033–1109. He stands between monastic meditation and high medieval scholastic method.
Main ideas
Credo ut intelligam: faith seeks reasons without treating reason as faith’s foundation. God is “that than which nothing greater can be thought”; existence in reality follows from this notion on pain of contradiction—his ontological argument. Satisfaction theory explains the Incarnation as restoring honor and justice disordered by sin. Free will and truth receive careful conceptual analyses in smaller treatises. Prayer and logic intertwine; the Proslogion is addressed to God. He models scholastic clarity without yet using full Aristotelian university apparatus.
Major works
- Proslogion
- Monologion
- Cur Deus Homo
- De Veritate
Legacy
The ontological argument structured debates from Aquinas and Descartes to Kant and contemporary analytic philosophy of religion. Atonement theology continually revisits Cur Deus Homo. He remains a bridge from monastic to scholastic Christian thought.