Anselm of Canterbury
1033 – 1109
Benedictine monk and Archbishop of Canterbury called the "Father of Scholasticism." His ontological argument for God’s existence and satisfaction theory of atonement broke new ground in philosophical theology.
Monk & Philosopher
Born in Aosta in what is now northern Italy, Anselm entered the Benedictine monastery of Bec in Normandy at age 27, drawn by the reputation of its prior, Lanfranc. He succeeded Lanfranc as prior and then as abbot, making Bec one of the leading intellectual centers of Europe. His Proslogion, written during his years at Bec, introduced the ontological argument — that God, as “that than which nothing greater can be conceived,” must exist in reality and not merely in the mind. The ontological argument is one of the most fascinating and debated ideas in the history of philosophy. Unlike the cosmological arguments that Thomas Aquinas would later develop — arguments from the existence of the world to the existence of God — Anselm’s argument proceeds entirely from the concept of God itself. If God is the greatest conceivable being, and existence is greater than non-existence, then the greatest conceivable being must exist. The argument was immediately challenged by the monk Gaunilo, who argued that the same logic could prove the existence of the greatest conceivable island. Anselm’s reply — that islands and other contingent things differ fundamentally from a necessary being — set the terms for a debate that has continued for nearly a thousand years. Anselm’s method, which he called “fides quaerens intellectum” — “faith seeking understanding” — was revolutionary. He did not argue from Scripture or tradition but from reason alone, attempting to demonstrate the truths of faith through purely rational argument. This approach was rooted in his deep Augustinian conviction that faith and reason are complementary: one must believe in order to understand, but belief naturally seeks understanding. Augustine of Hippo’s influence on Anselm was pervasive, and it was through Anselm that Augustinian thought entered the mainstream of medieval philosophical theology.
Archbishop & Reformer
Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093, Anselm spent much of his tenure in conflict with the English kings William II and Henry I over the issue of lay investiture — the king’s claim to appoint bishops. Exiled twice, he used his time abroad to write Cur Deus Homo (“Why God Became Man”), which proposed the “satisfaction theory” of atonement: humanity’s sin created a debt to God’s honor that only a God-man could repay. The investiture controversy was one of the great church-state conflicts of the medieval period, and Anselm’s role in it reveals a man of considerable political courage. His willingness to defy kings in defense of the Church’s independence anticipates the later conflicts of Thomas Becket and, in a very different context, Martin Luther’s stand at Worms. Anselm was not a natural politician — he would have preferred to remain in his monastery writing philosophy — but he understood that the integrity of the Church required freedom from secular control. Cur Deus Homo remains one of the most important works of atonement theology ever written. Before Anselm, the dominant theory of the atonement was the “ransom theory” — the idea that Christ’s death paid a ransom to the devil. Anselm rejected this as absurd: God owes the devil nothing. Instead, he argued that sin offends God’s honor and justice, creating a debt that humanity cannot pay but must pay. Only a being who is both fully God and fully human can satisfy this debt. The theory has been criticized for making God seem like an offended feudal lord, but its insistence that the atonement must be understood in terms of justice, not merely mercy, has been immensely influential, shaping the theology of Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, and John Calvin alike.
Philosophical Method & Influence
Anselm is often called the “Father of Scholasticism” for his method of applying rigorous rational analysis to questions of faith. His motto “fides quaerens intellectum” became the watchword of medieval theology. The ontological argument has been debated by every major philosopher since, from Thomas Aquinas (who rejected it) to Descartes (who revived it) to Kant (who attempted to refute it definitively) to Alvin Plantinga (who developed a modal version that continues to be debated). Anselm’s influence on the scholastic method cannot be overstated. He showed that theological questions could be addressed with the same rigor and precision as philosophical questions — that faith does not require the abandonment of reason but its fullest exercise. This conviction animated the entire scholastic movement, from Peter Lombard through Thomas Aquinas to Duns Scotus. It also set up the tension that would eventually break apart the medieval synthesis: if reason can investigate the truths of faith, what happens when reason and faith seem to conflict? In the modern period, Anselm’s thought has found new champions. Karl Barth devoted an entire book to the ontological argument, reading it not as a philosophical proof but as a prayer — an act of faith seeking understanding within the context of worship. Barth’s reading, which emphasizes that Anselm’s argument presupposes faith rather than replacing it, has been enormously influential in contemporary theology and represents one of the most creative reinterpretations of a medieval text in the twentieth century.
Legacy
Anselm was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1720, and his influence continues to reverberate through both philosophy and theology. His ontological argument remains a standard topic in introductory philosophy courses worldwide, and philosophers continue to produce new versions and refutations. His satisfaction theory of atonement, though modified by later thinkers, established the framework within which Western Christianity has predominantly understood the cross. His legacy is particularly strong in the Anglican Church, which claims him as one of its greatest Archbishops of Canterbury. The Anglican tradition’s characteristic emphasis on the compatibility of faith and reason — what Richard Hooker would later call the “threefold cord” of Scripture, tradition, and reason — owes much to Anselm’s pioneering work. C.S. Lewis, the most famous Anglican apologist of the twentieth century, worked very much in the Anselmian tradition of faith seeking understanding, though Lewis preferred more informal and literary arguments to Anselm’s strict logical demonstrations. Anselm’s deepest insight may be his simplest: that the desire to understand is itself a form of worship. To think carefully about God is not to reduce God to a concept but to respond to the God who made us with minds that crave truth. This conviction, shared by Augustine of Hippo before him and Thomas Aquinas after him, remains the animating spirit of Christian intellectual life at its best.
“I do not seek to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand.— Anselm of Canterbury
Known For
- Ontological Argument
- Cur Deus Homo
- Faith Seeking Understanding
Key Works
Influenced By
- Augustine of Hippo
- Lanfranc of Bec
- Boethius
Influenced
- Thomas Aquinas
- René Descartes
- Alvin Plantinga