Anselm born in 1033 was the son of a wealthy family. He was a delicate and studious youth and, after an argument with his father, he roamed through Burgundy and France as a penniless student. He arrived at the monastery of Bec which was a centre of scholarship under the Abbot Lanfranc. After some years he succeeded Lanfranc as abbot. In his studies he attempted to find a logical basis for theology and developed the ‘ontological’ proof for the existence of God. In his 1078 work, Proslogium, he defines God as “a being than which no greater can be conceived,” and argues that such a being must exist in the mind, even in that of the person who denies the existence of God. From this, he suggests that if the greatest possible being exists in the mind, it must also exist in reality, because if it existed only in the mind, then an even greater being must be possible – one who exists both in mind and in reality. Therefore, this greatest possible being must exist.
The famous medieval scholar Saint Thomas Aquinas 1225-1274 while proposing five proofs of God’s existence in his Summa Theologica, objected to Anselm’s argument. He suggested that people cannot know the nature of God and, therefore, cannot conceive of God in the way Anselm proposed. This has been the subject of philosophical debate ever since.
In 1078 Anselm made his first visit to England and was received by the King (William the Conquorer) with great respect. Thereafter he was a frequent and honoured guest in England and was specially summoned to the deathbed of the King (1089). Anselm succeeded Archbishop Lanfranc as Archbishop of Canterbury amid troubled relations with the royal court.
Anselm was sensitive and generous, and said of his books, ‘I want to understand something of the truth which my heart believes and loves.’ His thought centred around practical reforms such as the suppression of the slave trade. He is regarded as the most important Christian writer between Augustine and Aquinas in the West and has been named a doctor of the Church.
Prayer written by St. Anselm
O my God, teach my heart where and how to seek You,
where and how to find You.
You are my God and You are my all and I have never seen You.
You have made me and remade me,
You have bestowed on me all the good things I possess,
Still I do not know You.
I have not yet done that for which I was made.
Teach me to seek You.
I cannot seek You unless You teach me
or find You unless You show Yourself to me.
Let me seek You in my desire,
let me desire You in my seeking.
Let me find You by loving You,
let me love You when I find You.
Amen
Christopher Jobson
Feature Image: A colourised portait of Anselm of Canterbury, Wikicommons, PD.