Anselm Of Canterbury Research Articles

Historia magistra vitae

The article raises the question of understanding history not as a synthesis of the originally ancient Greek understanding of the world, the world of cosmic order and the Jewish Olam, but a palimpsest, where an erased other text is seen through the written text so that two dissimilar images of the world are manifested. The author examines the possibilities of such an understanding of history through the texts of "On the Orator" by Cicero, "Scholastic History" by Comestor and through a fragment of "Proslogion" by Anselm of Canterbury, who included in his work the objection to it of a certain monk Gaunilon. The idea of the world by V. V. Bibikhin seems to be a variant of resolving the problem of a dual understanding of history

Ransom theory in a new economy: Recontextualising a metaphor

AbstractThis article demonstrates that an economic context is essential to the metaphor that Anselm of Canterbury and Peter Abelard used in their arguments against a ransom theory of atonement. Contrary to typical analyses, which suggest their metaphor makes a point about obedience or honour that slaves or servants owe to a master or king, this metaphor in fact suggests relations between the lord of a manor and his servi – serfs bound to the land, perpetually indebted to the lord and effectively considered his property. Should servi attempt to desert their lord, he had the right simply to reclaim them wherever they went. Insofar as this right voided the servus’ choice to leave their lord, the metaphorical framework of manorial economy ruled out the ‘rights of the devil’ in a way previous debt-slavery and military frameworks for ransom theory (in themselves) did not.

Cluny and the Muslims of La Garde-Freinet: Hagiography and the Problem of Islam in Medieval Europe

Cluny and the Muslims of La Garde-Freinet: Hagiography and the Problem of Islam in Medieval Europe

Cluny and the Muslims of La Garde-Freinet: Hagiography and the Problem of Islam in Medieval Europe

Cluny and the Muslims of La Garde-Freinet: Hagiography and the Problem of Islam in Medieval Europe

A Vindication of Desire: St Anselm, with C. S. Lewis

Despite different starting points, in the cloister and the world respectively, Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) and C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) enjoyed a mutual interest in the concept and experience of spiritual desire. Inspired by Lewis’ famous sermon, ‘The Weight of Glory’ (1941), but principally guided by Anselm’s reflections, this essay argues that desire exists in a dynamic relationship with love and that, as a journey of desire, the Christian life is extremely challenging, since it is a journey into mystery and towards moral perfection, but also contains and ultimately fulfils God’s promise of eternal joy. It is hoped that one by-product of this exploration may be to accord greater recognition to Anselm as a spiritual, even mystical, theologian, recognising him in Jean Leclercq’s description of an earlier monastic leader, Gregory the Great (d. 604), as a ‘doctor of desire’.

Toward a multifaith view of atonement

The meaning of the death of Jesus on the cross has been interpreted differently from the first century until today. Of the many theories proposed throughout Christian history, the dominant understanding, especially among evangelical Protestants since the Reformation and perhaps dating from Anselm of Canterbury in the eleventh century, has been the penal-substitutionary view of atonement. Christ died to pay the penalty for human sin, so humanity can receive forgiveness by trusting in the efficacy of Jesus’s death on its behalf. This explanation is an objective theory that is “Godward focused,” understanding the work of Christ as a divine plan to satisfy what God requires: expiation for human sin. Other competing theories, however, reject this idea and propose more subjective views that are “humanward focused.” This article considers the reality of different, imperfect perspectives about matters as complex as the interpretation of God. It connects the writer’s affirmation of the plurality of religious experience with his having lived a quarter century in the multifaith milieu of Java. It touches on specific opposing theories of atonement, endorsing as more useful in our interreligious world the subjective approaches to understanding the cross. It advocates an intriguing argument for the plurality of end goals, or “salvations,” among the world’s religions. Finally, it uses the less dominant models of martyr motif and the moral example theory to investigate how the concept of atonement might be understood in the context of four major world religions other than Christianity, suggesting that acknowledgment of the legitimacy of different approaches to the Divine is a distinctly “Christian” way to live in a diverse world.

Free Will and the Rebel Angels in Medieval Philosophy by Tobias Hoffmann

Reviewed by: Free Will and the Rebel Angels in Medieval Philosophy by Tobias Hoffmann Julie Fox-Horton Middle Ages, angels, free will, intellectualism, voluntarism, fallibility, agency, psychology, theology tobias hoffmann. Free Will and the Rebel Angels in Medieval Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. xiv + 292. In Free Will and the Rebel Angels in Medieval Philosophy, Tobias Hoffmann thoroughly examines the height of the free will debate and the influence of Aristotle's action theory on theologians central to the dispute in the Latin West between the 1220s and the 1320s. The reception of Aristotle at this time caused a shift in the debate from a theologically centered reflection on the relationship between free will and sin, to a philosophical query exploring "how free agency is rooted in the powers of the soul" (1). Organized into three sections, Free Will and the Rebel Angels in Medieval Philosophy serves as an encyclopedia of medieval theologians and philosophical thinkers in the Latin West entrenched in the debate of free will as the theoretical evolution unfolds. Hoffmann's methodology for evaluating each thinker's position on the topic consists in looking at three fundamental components: their presuppositions of free will and the question of controlling one's actions, the agency of choice, and the discourse of outright evil. In Part I, "Free Will," Hoffmann begins with a brief introduction to the essential theories of free will before Aristotelian action theory entered the debate. Discussing Augustine's struggle over the issue of free will and then moving on to Peter Lombard's treatment of the issue in his Sentences, or [End Page 438] Sententiae in IV libris distinctae, which had a profound influence on theology for some time as "a principal reference text in the formation of Catholic theologians from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries," Hoffmann moves quickly on to the ideological shift (20). Beginning in the 1220s, two influential texts circulated among theologians, John of Damascus's De fide orthodoxa and portions of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, at which point Aristotle became the "principal authority in philosophy," and influential in the free will debate (22). Once medieval theologians began to reflect on Aristotle's ideas on the mechanics of decision-making, traditional notions that once focused on "the relation between free decision, sin, and grace" shifted, in what Hoffmann refers to as a psychological turn, to a "psychological foundation of free decision in reason and will" (31). During the early phases of the psychological turn in the free will debate, scholars like Thomas Aquinas—particularly through his ideas of "the will as a rational appetite" and his discourse on the relation of the intellect and will—created a divide among thinkers, characterized as either intellectualism or voluntarism (42). For voluntarism, Hoffmann points to several medieval thinkers but focuses on Henry of Ghent and his voluntarist conceptions of free will that both align with and deviate from Aquinas. Hoffmann then turns to thinkers whose theories lean toward intellectualism, focusing on Godfrey of Fontaines and his use of principles of metaphysics to address the cause of free will. During the first two decades of the fourteenth century, the free will debate evolved even further with theologians like John Duns Scotus and William of Ockham, who either refined or radicalized free will theories (119). In Part II, "Whence Evil?", a theme central to medieval theologians and the debate of free will is evaluated—the origin of evil. As a premise on the origin of evil, Hoffmann turns to Augustine and Pseudo-Dionysius. For Augustine, the question of the origin of evil developed from "a thorough reflection about the fall of angels" (163). In comparison, Augustine argued, according to Hoffman, "an evil will ultimately lacks an explanation," (169) while Pseudo-Dionysius argued, "evil cannot be a final cause" (173). The unifying principle for both thinkers is the belief that "evil does not have an efficient cause" (173). From Augustine and Pseudo-Dionysius Hoffmann explores deeper the cause of evil according to other thinkers, such as Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Lombard, William of Auxerre, Thomas Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, and John Duns Scotus. After a lengthy analysis of the influence on and the contributions of these...

Критика онтологического аргумента и интерпретация кантовского учения об идеале разума у Ф. В. Й. Шеллинга

To reconstruct a critique of the ontological proof of the existence of God in Schelling’s philosophy I examine his interpretation of the ontological argument by Anselm of Canterbury and Descartes as well as Schelling’s assessment of the critique of the Kantian ontological proof of the existence of God. I propose a reconstruction of Schelling’s account of undoubted being which cannot be deduced from the concept of the totality of all that is possible and therefore must come before any thought. He interprets reason as having an ecstatic nature which posits precedent undoubted being. This enables Schelling to formulate his own version of the thesis on the unity of being and thought, whereby being comes first and thought is only second. Against this background I analyse Schelling’s interpretation of the Kantian account of the ideal of reason. Schelling, on the one hand, agrees with Kant that being is not a real predicate, hence real existence cannot be deduced from essence in the sense of “what.” But, on the other hand, in contrast to Kant, he believes that real existence of the individual absolute must be assumed, which would be the subject for all possible predicates and whose being is ecstatically posited by reason as being external to itself. I raise the question of the relevance of Schelling’s thought for modern ontology, above all in overcoming ontotheology. Proceeding from the works of J. F. Courtine and L. Tengelyi I single out two aspects of Schelling’s doctrine that are relevant to my subject: (1) the priority of existence over essence in God’s being and (2) the fundamental irreducibility of God to a necessarily existent being, i.e. God’s freedom. It is evident that, in his interpretation of Kant, Schelling somewhat simplifies his train of thought and leaves it unclear how Kant links the concepts of necessary being and the supremely perfect being. It is also evident that Schelling’s concepts of “contingency,” “contingent necessity,” “the whole experience” need further study.

Anselm’s apories

This article deals with the analyse of “Proslogion” of Anselm of Canterbury and examines the apophatic aspects of “unum argumentum”. In the conclusion it shows a number of specific apories that characterize Anselm’s thought. It makes a suggestion about the role of the “fool” from 14th Psalm in the elaboration of this argument.

The Patristic Roots of Satisfaction Atonement Theories: Did the Church Fathers Affirm Only Christus Victor?

In his work Christus Victor, Gustaf Aulén argued that Anselm of Canterbury’s account of the atonement was foreign to ancient Christian belief. In particular, Aulén argued that Anselm diverged from the original understanding of the doctrine as presented by the church fathers. Aulén argued that the Eastern church rightly endorsed a model of the atonement that he called the ‘classic view’, while Anselm in the West later wrongly developed a theory of satisfaction that Aulén called the ‘Latin’ view. This critique, by extension, applies to other ‘Anselmic’ theories of atonement such as penal substitution that, like Anselm’s, also affirm that Christ’s death in some way satisfied God’s requirements in response to human sin. Patristic literature shows, however, that Aulén’s conclusion is more imposition than exposition. Fathers from both East and West commonly advanced theories that comport well with what Aulén called the Latin view alongside Christus Victor.

Toward a New Account of the Fall, Informed by Anselm of Canterbury and Thomas Aquinas

This article argues that the doctrine of the Fall into sin is necessary to avoid compromising Scriptural teaching on the universality of sin or the goodness of creation. A new theory of the Fall, indebted to Anselm of Canterbury, Thomas Aquinas, and the author’s monograph Aquinas, Original Sin, and the Challenge of Evolution, is proposed, on which the Fall is comparable to the loss of a gifted inheritance.

Deepened Monotheism. Philosophical Reasoning on the Trinity in Western Early Medieval and Classic Arabic Theology

SummaryChristian theologians can explain the Trinitarian faith today in dialogue with Islamic thinkers as “deepened monotheism”. Therefore it is important to widen the systematic-theological discourse in an ecumenical and transcultural perspective and to retrieve resources from Western and non-Western traditions of Trinitarian thought (I).In this paper I will first work out historically that the Trinitarian creed of Nicea and Constantinople was originally an ecumenical but non-Western creed (II). Afterwards, I investigate the philosophical-theological reflection on the Trinity by Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) in the context of early interreligious encounters in the Latin West. Based on biblical, augustinian and Greek sources, he developed an approach to understand the mystery of the Trinity by rational arguments as “deepened monotheism” (III). Then I will proceed to explore the philosophical-theological dialogues on the Trinity from the Arabic philosopher and Syrian-orthodox theologian Yaḥyā ibn ‘Adī (893–974). Much earlier he developed rational arguments for the Triunity of God with reference to Aristotle. Thereby he answers to anti-trinitarian arguments from Islamic thinkers like al-Kindī and al-Warrāq. He intends that the Trinitarian faith of Christian minorities can thereby be understood and tolerated by Islamic thinkers as rationally founded “deepened monotheism” (IV).In the end I will evaluate what these classics from the Western and non-western traditions of Trinitarian thought contribute to explicate the doctrine of the Trinity today in a pluralistic religious context as “deepened monotheism” (V).

Belief, Knowledge and Faith: A Logical Modal Theory

The concept of God is studied using the ontological argument of Anselm of Canterbury that proves God’s existence using a syllogism based on ontology. Unlike metaphysical arguments that demonstrate the existence of God through the study of being and its attributes, the ontological argument aims to reach this same goal based on a concept of God by means of the idea of an entity “greater than anything that can be conceived”. Descartes’ influence highlighted some of the philosophical difficulties with the inherent dualism implicit in ontology. Logic does not say whether ideas are true or false, as Logic is concerned with right or wrong inference. We take a non-dualist approach in contrast to some of the approaches reviewed. To investigate belief and faith, a modal logical formalization is used, especially modal logic S5, which we find appropriate for presenting arguments. While mathematics and logic can convince, they do not help one to believe in God. This can make us think that reason is not enough to accept God, one must have faith to have access to Him. The relation between reason and faith needs clarification, and the ontological argument requires an unsustainable dualism.

St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109 AD): His Contributions to the Intellectual Developments on Medieval Scholasticism

<p class="abstracttextDILIGENTIA">Medieval scholasticism, considering its perennial influence for six centuries in the European universities, is an important intellectual power that deserves to be taken into account. In order to obtain a clearer picture of medieval scholasticism, it is necessary to have a precise understanding on the contributions of early medieval scholastic theologians who have laid the foundation for its subsequent developments. Therefore, this article will elaborate the thought of St. Anselm of Canterbury by analyzing his relevant works conceptually, discovering aspects of his thought which are foundational and significant for the subsequent intellectual developments of medieval scholasticism, exposing these aspects in detail, and tracing their influences on later theologians or periods. This elaboration finds four aspects of his thought and will expose it in detail: his view on faith seeking understanding, on teaching methodology, on the doctrine of satisfaction, and on the necessity of incarnation and satisfaction. The detailed exposition of these four aspects will substantiate the title conferred on him by Ulrich G. Leinsle as “the father of scholasticism.” </p>

"...ТЯНЕТ НАС ВВЕРХ": ТОПОС В ЗАКЛЮЧИТЕЛЬНЫХ СТРОКАХ "ФАУСТА" ГЁТЕ

In the final lines of “Faust” the attention of researchers was primarily attracted by the image of the Eternal Feminine (Das Ewig-Weibliche) that has given rise to a lot of interpretations. However, from the point of view of “Toposforschung” as a philological method developed by Ernst Robert Curtius, the very last line (“Draws us upward” – “Zieht uns hinan”) is no less important: it places the image of the Eternal Feminine in the historical sequence of variations of a topos which expresses the idea of a certain spiritual power that draws man upward. Various concepts can act as such a power: hope (John Chrysostom), wisdom (Hugo of Saint-Victor), right reasoning (anonymous medieval poem), eternity (Walter of Châtillon), anagogical sense in the system of polysemous interpretation of the Bible (Absalon of Springiersbach), Virgin Mary (Hildegard of Bingen), Jesus Christ (Anselm of Canterbury, Georgette de Montenay), poetry (Giovanni Boccaccio). Goethe updates the topos inserting in its scheme a new image of the Eternal Feminine. While the nominative part of the topos (designation of the force acting on man) was continually changing, the predicative part (designation of the action itself) remained unchanged: in all the analyzed examples, as in Goethe’s Faust, there is the verb “to draw” (Latin “trahere”, French “tirer”, German “ziehen”) which shows that the spiritual principle has material power.

Vernacular Manuscript Culture, 1000–1500 ed. by Erik Kwakkel

Reviewed by: Vernacular Manuscript Culture, 1000–1500ed. by Erik Kwakkel Hannah Morcos Keywords Manuscript Studies, paleography, codicology, vernacular languages, medieval Erik Kwakkel, ed. Vernacular Manuscript Culture, 1000–1500. Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Book Culture 4Leiden: Leiden University Press/University of Chicago Press, 2018. 278 pp. + 21 color plates, 25 black and white illustrations. $45. ISBN: 978-908-72-8302-5. C urated by the dynamicErik Kwakkel, this wide-ranging collection of essays on vernacular manuscript production belongs to a series that "aims to discuss material features of manuscripts in relation to the cultural context of their production" (11). Featuring contributions by eminent scholars as well as early career researchers, the chapters focus primarily on the vernaculars of northern Europe, but also include traditions less familiar to the mainstream of manuscript studies, namely Frisian and Icelandic book production. Moreover, the textual contents comprise material often at the peripheries of literary studies, such as prayers and legal texts. Together this contributes to a broader and more nuanced presentation of book production across Europe. The collection begins with Kathryn A. Lowe's intricate study of the copies of Gregory the Great's Regula pastoralisassociated with the cathedral church of Worcester. By placing the philological and paleographical evidence in historical context, Lowe provides new insights into the reading and copying of this important patristic text in Latin and Old English. In particular, she demonstrates the important role of Wales for its transmission in Latin, [End Page 214]offering further evidence of the strength of Latinity in Wales during the ninth-century Viking raids. Lowe's principal focus is Glasgow, University Library, MS Hunter 431, a Latin copy of the text started in the early eleventh century and completed (and corrected) in the early twelfth century. Among the additions to the manuscript page are thirteenth-century annotations by the so-called Tremulous Hand of Worcester, who referred to it while working through two tenth-century Old English copies of the text. Lowe demonstrates how the exemplar of Hunter 431 was probably Welsh, containing a system of abbreviations unfamiliar to the original scribes. Lowe thus reveals how even at Worcester (a "bastion of learning") they "had to look elsewhere in order to acquire copies of key patristic texts in their original language" (44). In the subsequent chapter, Nigel F. Palmer provides a magisterial overview of manuscripts and fragments containing Middle High German prayers copied between 1150 and 1250. Palmer distinguishes this corpus from the later vernacular prayer books that "assert themselves as a major component of German literature" (54). He traces the beginnings back to the insular tradition epitomized by Anselm of Canterbury, who played a key role "in the emergence of the 'prayer book'" (55) and whose Latin prayers were circulated and translated in German-speaking lands. In the twelfth-and thirteenth-century manuscripts under investigation, Palmer discovers a small "network" (70) of widely circulating German-language prayers often added to existing Latin collections. He traces evidence of female ownership and identifies a context of close interaction between wealthy families and the monasteries where the books were copied and illuminated. The chapter includes a useful inventory of the thirteen manuscripts in the corpus (73–85), as well as numerous figures and four-color plates. Through this important contribution, Palmer lays the groundwork for more extensive investigations of the corpus, while demonstrating its significance for our understanding of early medieval German literary culture. The third chapter jumps forward to consider rubrics in the manuscripts of Jean Froissart's Chroniques. Godfried Croenen challenges the assumption that rubrication was a standard feature of late medieval manuscripts and calls for "a better understanding of the precise dynamics, chronology, and geography" of their "generalized" presence in books (105). Beginning with [End Page 215]a useful survey of the medieval and modern (scholarly) uses of the term "rubric," he goes on to explore differences in practice across France. Croenen argues that Froissart did not compose the rubrics found in the manuscripts of his historical works. The impetus to introduce them is linked to Parisian modes of book production. Croenen compellingly articulates how rubrics became a conventional feature of Parisian vernacular manuscripts from the thirteenth century onward...

Approaching Participation in the Divine Gift: Anselm of Canterbury’s Theology of the Holy Spirit

This article seeks to constructively retrieve Anselm’s theology of the Holy Spirit by responding to a recent criticism of his doctrine of atonement. This criticism is called the question of efficacy and focuses particularly on how Anselm holds humanity to participate in and receive the divine gift of atonement. In short, this paper argues that the Spirit’s prevenient and subsequent grace allow for an individual to respond freely and in faith to Christ’s work, resulting in three individually necessary and jointly sufficient conditions for union to be restored with God and human flourishing to obtain in Anselm’s thinking. In order to argue this, the paper proceeds in four sections. First, it discusses the question of efficacy. Second, it discusses the Spirit’s work in relation to an individual initially accepting Christ’s Gift. The paper then proceeds by discussing the subsequent work of the Spirit and redemptive role of faith that are inherently tied to the initial work. The paper then concludes by analyzing alternative approaches to this question of efficacy.

La meditación según Anselmo de Canterbury

Con el tema de la meditación somos introducidos directamente en el ámbito de la espiritualidad monástica, de la cual San Anselmo de Canterbury es uno de los representantes más significativos de la Alta Edad Media. Como monje benedictino, él reconoce y vive plenamente la reflexión sobre sí mismo entendida como introspección: se trata del ejercicio del retiro para, en silencio, buscar a Dios. El distanciarse del mundo (un tipo de contemptus mundi) y el amor del reino de Dios constituyen los signos más indicativos de la felicidad que puede ser experimentada por un monje del siglo XI. Uno de los primeros aspectos de la meditación es la conquista del yo interior como auto reconocimiento del alma para la búsqueda de Dios a través de la fe. Este trabajo se centrará en la discusión sobre la meditación en el contexto de la espiritualidad monástica de la época de Anselmo de Canterbury y en el modelo de oración meditativa elaborado sobre (1) el Proslogion, un tratado conocido por ser una meditación de la razón de la fe; y (2) la Tercera Meditación, que considera la redención de la condición humana. El objetivo del trabajo es mostrar que la meditación y la contemplación, según San Anselmo, alcanzan su completo significado por medio del misterio de la salvación.

Counterpossibles and Normal Defaults in the Filioque Controversy

A counterpossible conditional, or counterpossible for short, is a conditional proposition whose antecedent is impossible. The filioque doctrine is a dogma of western Christian Trinitarian theology according to which the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The filioque doctrine was the principal theological reason for the Great Schism, the split between Eastern Orthodoxy and western Christianity, which continues today. In the paper, I review one of the earliest medieval defenses of the doctrine in Anselm of Canterbury, and I show that Anselm’s treatment of counterpossible conditionals concerning the procession of the spirit from the son in Trinitarian theology represent an early foray into default logic. Thus, the mutual estrangement of eastern and western positions on the matter may not lie fundamentally in a change in dogma, but rather in a change in logic.

Theologizing Latinamente: Had Anselm Known Us!

After a historical and cultural grounding of Prosper of Aquitaine's lex orandi, lex credendi and of Anselm of Canterbury's notion that theology is fides quarens intellectum, this article examines the importance of constructing an Episcopal Latinoa theology that is clearly validated by the academy but whose most important validation comes from the people who are the church. Teología de conjunto (or teología en conjunto ) demands and expects theologians’ grounding location to be within lo cotidiano of our people. To theologize latinamente, therefore, is a movement, a contextual perspective, and a methodological approach to theologizing within Christian theology, distinguished by a cultural, critical, contextual, justice-seeking, and noninnocent interpretation of Scripture, tradition and doctrine, society and church, and history. It is intent on acknowledging and honoring Latinoa cultures, histories, and stories as legitimate and necessary sources of Christian theology.