All thinkers
Theologian · Medieval
St. Anselm of Canterbury
1033–1109 · Early scholasticism (Augustinian)
Doctor of the Church
Latin
Doctor of the Church (Doctor Magnificus), declared 1720.
Benedictine monk of Bec and Archbishop of Canterbury, Anselm defined theology as “faith seeking understanding.” His Proslogion gives the ontological argument for God's existence, his Monologion a rational meditation on the divine nature, and Cur Deus Homo explains the Incarnation through the satisfaction owed to God's honor.
Why he matters: He is the father of scholasticism: the first to show that reason, moved by faith, can give “necessary reasons” for what it believes, and his satisfaction theory shaped the whole Western doctrine of redemption.
Reading
-
ProslogionSt. Anselm · Read chs. 1–4 slowly; it is a prayer before it is an argument.
-
Cur Deus HomoSt. Anselm · Why God became man; the satisfaction theory at its source.
-
AnselmSandra Visser and Thomas Williams · A clear philosophical introduction (Great Medieval Thinkers).
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.
Settled teaching
Its center
Open question
Beyond teaching, not condemned
Condemned error
I
God and Being · What is, and whence it is.
Can reason know that God exists?
Natural theology
Fideism or agnosticism
Natural theology
How is God related to the world?
Creation from nothing
Pantheism or emanation
Creation from nothing
Is the world governed by purpose?
Providence and final causes
Chance and mechanism
Providence and final causes
Do natures and essences really exist?
Realism
Nominalism
Realism
God's essence and His energies
Absolute simplicity
Essence–energies distinction
Absolute simplicity
How should we speak of God?
Cataphatic (analogical) way
Apophatic (negative) way
Cataphatic (analogical) way
Is 'being' said of God and of creatures in the same sense?
Analogy of being
Analogy of being
Univocity of being
How does creation speak of God?
A book of signs and vestiges
Natures studied in their own right
A book of signs and vestiges
II
Faith, Reason and Truth · How we know, and whom we trust.
Faith and reason: who has the last word?
Rationalism
Rationalism
Fideism
Where does knowledge begin?
Illumination and innate ideas
Senses and abstraction
Illumination and innate ideas
Is truth objective?
Objective truth
Relativism and pragmatism
Objective truth
Who interprets revelation?
Living Tradition and Magisterium
Private judgment
Living Tradition and Magisterium
What is theology for?
A wisdom ordered to loving
A science ordered to knowing
A wisdom ordered to loving
Does doctrine develop?
A living development
Always the same, in the same words
A living development
Are the world's learning and arts a danger or a gift?
A gift to be baptized
A danger: Athens has nothing to do with Jerusalem
A gift to be baptized
III
The Human Person · Soul, body, freedom and the Fall.
Is there a spiritual soul?
Immortal spiritual soul
Mind is brain
Immortal spiritual soul
Are you free?
Free will
Determinism
Free will
How fallen is human nature?
Totally depraved
Totally depraved
Basically good
Marriage, sex and the body's meaning
Given by nature and grace
Given by nature and grace
Defined by consent and identity
What is suffering for?
A share in the Cross
An evil to be relieved
A share in the Cross
IV
The Moral Life · Law, virtue, conscience and the good.
Is morality objective and knowable?
Natural law
Relativism
Natural law
Why is the good good?
Eternal law (intellectualism)
Divine command (voluntarism)
Eternal law (intellectualism)
What is happiness?
Beatitude in God
Earthly flourishing
Beatitude in God
What is heaven's happiness, at its heart?
Between
The intellect's vision of God
The will's love and enjoyment of God
V
Grace and Salvation · How God saves, and whom.
How are we made right with God?
Infused, transforming grace
Forensic imputation
Infused, transforming grace
What is salvation for?
Between
Pardon and escape
Deification
Hell and hope
The many are lost
The many are lost
All will be saved
Would the Word have become flesh had Adam not sinned?
Christ came to redeem sinners
Christ came to redeem sinners
Christ was willed first (absolute primacy)
Where does your eye rest in Christ: His divinity or His humanity?
Between
The eternal Word made flesh
The man Jesus of Nazareth
VI
Church and Society · Authority, the state, wealth and the nation.
Church and state
Social kingship of Christ
Laicism
Social kingship of Christ
VII
Worship, Prayer and the Two Lungs · Liturgy, icons, the Spirit, and the See of Peter.
The procession of the Holy Spirit
From the Father and the Son (Filioque)
From the Father through the Son
From the Father and the Son (Filioque)
The office of Peter
Universal and immediate primacy
Conciliarism
Universal and immediate primacy
What do the sacraments do?
Efficacious ex opere operato
Signs only
Efficacious ex opere operato
When the Pope speaks
Every word binds
Resist and judge
Every word binds