Students of Anselm labour under considerable disadvantages. There is no one book which gathers together the 1 major texts in English, and some of the existing translations of Anselm's works are either in clumsy English, predate the modern critical edition of the Latin texts or even contain serious errors which distort the argument. For some time a modern critical edition which collects together all the treatises of Anselm has been badly needed. The present volume is planned as the first of a series of three which will make available translations of the complete treatises of Anselm. The text is based on modern critical editions of the original Latin and is in clear and intelligible English with a short preface and explanatory footnotes. It will be welcomed by teachers and students engaged in studying the works of one of the greatest of medieval theologians.
Anselm of Aosta was an Italian-born English theologian, monk, and abbot at the Benedictine abbey of Bec served as Archbishop of Canterbury under William II from 1093 to his death on 1109. He is held to be a Saint in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches, and was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by a bull of Pope Clement XI in 1720.
Anselm helped to inaugurate the Scholastic movement in the medieval period, sometimes credited as the "father of scholasticism," and was known for what is today referred to as the "ontological argument" for the existence of God.
Read Oxford edition but wanted to count as finished book from collected essays as I will not return until Theo II on the incarnation.
Absolutely beautiful ontological argument for the existence of God through reason alone followed by pure devotional theology that I will return to many times.
I read only the Proslogion from this book. This is the first rational explanation for the existence of God and written almost 1000 years ago, from the perspective of one who already believes. You must read Anselm's argument very carefully with deep concentration but in the end you will be rewarded.