Anselm Of Canterbury: Biography Of This Philosopher And Theologian
The Middle Ages was not as dark a time as many believe, living proof of this being the fact that many great thinkers in Western history can be located in this period.
Among the greatest medieval philosophers is the figure of Saint Anselm of Canterbury, theologian and scholastic philosopher known for having raised what centuries later would be called the ontological argument.
Next we will see a summary of the life of this thinker through a biography of Saint Anselm and we will also delve into his particular way of defending the existence of God.
Saint Anselm of Canterbury, also known as Anselm of Aosta after his birthplace, and Anselm of Bec after the monastery in which he became prior, was a monk of the Order of Saint Benedict, doctor of the Church, scholastic theologian and philosopher known for having served as Archbishop of Canterbury during the period from 1093 to 1109 quite a turbulent time in the history of England.
We know the life of this thinker thanks to the work of Eadmero, one of his direct disciples. Although it is logical to think that his student describes the life of his teacher with exaggerations and various interpretations, all of them with the clear intention of exalting a candidate for sainthood, it is believed that it is a reliable portrait of what Anselm of Canterbury must have been like, great defender of the Immaculate Conception of Mary in addition to being considered the father of scholasticism and being known for his ontological argument.
Early years and youth
Saint Anselm was born one day in the year 1033 in Aosta, at that time Lombardy, which is why in Italy it is better known as San Anselmo d’Aosta. His family was of noble Piedmontese lineage, he being the son of Gondulfo, a Lombard nobleman, and Ermenberga, related to Otto I of Savoy.
As with many of the biographies of medieval saints, Saint Anselm’s parents are said to have been two antagonistic figures. His father was prodigal and dissipated, while his mother was deeply religious. Regardless of whether this is true or not, it should be said that it would not represent an exceptional case considering that this behavior was common among men and women in the Middle Ages.
The saint’s early childhood passed completely normally, although From a very young age he showed religious concerns, strengthened by the constant contact with his mother who would have brought him closer to her values and religious practices. Likewise, it was not unusual for the children of nobles to become interested in monastic life to give renown to their family.
This religious interest grew stronger and, at the age of fifteen, the saint asked to enter Benedictine monasticism Although in his adolescent years he is described as a pious and studious person, it seems that at the end of this same stage of youth there were several conflicts with his father, which is why he would end up leaving home.
Entry into religious life
After that he would carry out several preliminary studies on rhetoric and Latin in Burgundy, Avranches and finally Bec, a place where he had ended up attracted by the fame of Lanfranco and the Benedictine Order. This is somewhat ironic, since despite entering at the age of 27 in 1060, he was initially reluctant given the renown of that monk, whom Anselm considered rather an obstacle to starting his ecclesiastical career.
It was during his stay at the Bec monastery that he composed two of his best-known works: “The Monologion” and the “Proslogion.” The Monologion consists of a theological-philosophical meditation on the reasons for faith, where it presents its proofs of the existence of God following the Augustinian tradition. In the Proslogion he exposes what has been called the ontological argument, constituting one of Saint Anselm’s most original contributions to medieval philosophy.
Transfer to Canterbury and final years
In 1063 he succeeded his mentor Lanfranco in the priory of Bec, becoming its new abbot, although this would not be the last place in which he would hold that position. Several years later, in 1078, he would end up in England, specifically to the city of Canterbury where he would be elected abbot in 1078 and, later, in 1093 he would become the archbishop of the same abbey, although he was reluctant to be chosen for the position.
Saint Anselm’s fame is due above all to his stay in England, which is why he is known worldwide as Saint Anselm of Canterbury. It is in Great Britain that the saint proves to be, in addition to being a prolific philosopher and theologian, also a political apologist, defending the creed against the potential religious schisms that were emerging in England at the end of the 20th century. XI.
Taking advantage of his position as archbishop, he confronted on more than one occasion the English monarchs William II and his successor Henry I, who opposed him on multiple occasions wanting to reduce the influence of the Church in Britain. These conflicts caused Saint Anselm to have to leave Canterbury on more than one occasion, but this did not prevent him from serving as archbishop of the city until his death in 1109 at the age of 76.
The Philosophy of Saint Anselm
Saint Anselm of Canterbury is considered one of the most relevant philosophers of the Augustinian tradition and, as the theologian that he was, his philosophy shows his religious and spiritual concerns. In fact, his philosophical work is focused on understanding faith, using it as an argument to justify the existence of God, based on the fact that there was only one truth that was revealed by God and that is the object of faith.
Reason, explains Anselm of Canterbury, can add understanding to faith and thus strengthen it, but Reasoning alone has no autonomy or capacity to reach the truth by itself, although it is useful to clarify belief, an attitude that can well be summarized in the expression “credo, ut intelligam.” Reason is placed in strict dependence on faith.
It is not possible to comment on Anselmian philosophy without mentioning the Monologion, being the work in which Saint Anselm exposes several arguments in which he attempts to demonstrate the existence of God, accompanying it with reflections of a theological nature. This text was of great interest among his Benedictine companions, who asked him to bring together in a single argument the evidentiary force that the arguments presented in the Monologion offered together and, in response to this, Saint Anselm wrote the Proslogion.
It is in this second work in which Saint Anselm lays out the ontological argument, that is, an a priori deductive argument in favor of the existence of God. This argument, presented in chapter II of the Proslogion, was not only intended to satisfy the request that his fellow Benedictines had made, but also to provide the believer with a solid logical reason that would undoubtedly confirm his faith.
We owe the name ontological argument to Emmanuel Kant, who named it this way when delving into Anselm’s life and work. Saint Anselm presents this argument in the form of a prayer, although we can describe its logical structure in the following points:
a) We conceive of God as that greater and better of which nothing can be thought, an idea of God that everyone understands.
b) But that which is greater and better of which nothing can be thought must exist outside our mind, since we attribute perfection to it (better than all things) and therefore it must exist by necessity, since existence is a quality of perfection.
c) This perfect being would be more real than anything one could think of simply by existing. Consequently, God must exist not only in the mind in the form of an idea, but also extramentally as part of reality.
Saint Anselm indicates that the definition of God can be understood and accepted by anyone He focuses his analysis on that same idea and its implications, indicating that it is absurd to mentally conceive a perfect being and deny it the greatest perfection: existence. Thus, he concludes by affirming the necessary existence of God as a requirement of reason to avoid reaching such absurdity.
Because the ontological argument is one of the most interesting arguments in the history of philosophy, it has also been one of the most controversial. There have been philosophers who have considered it valid, among them René Descartes and Friedrich Hegel, introducing it into their philosophical systems. Others, however, reject it, as is the case of Saint Thomas, David Hume or Kant himself, denying its evidentiary force.
