Abstract
Anselm of Canterbury is well known for his discussion of the nature of God. In the present paper I defend his methodology, then outline some of the attributes which he ascribes to God, noting problems and pointing towards Anselmian solutions. Anselm begins his analysis with the claim that God is a perfect being, beyond any limitation, “that than which no greater can be conceived”. His method is to unpack this concept of perfection and ascribe to God, to an unlimited degree, whatever attributes it is simply better to have than not. I begin with the controversial attributes of simplicity and eternity and then show how, given Anselm’s understanding of these attributes, the more standard attributes of omnipotence, omniscience, and perfect goodness, fit the Anselmian schema in which all of the attributes we ascribe to God are one and the same, and all identical with the divine nature.
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Notes
- 1.
For a longer (though still introductory) treatment of these issues see my Perfect Being Theology (Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press, 2000).
- 2.
The same assumption is at work in his Monologion, the book he wrote before the Proslogion.
- 3.
For example, Roman Catholics have been comfortable with the view that the first chapters of Genesis do not necessarily describe seven periods of 24 hours each ever since Augustine wrote his “literal” (though definitely not prima facie) interpretation at the beginning of the fifth century. On the other hand, some Protestants, while insisting upon the seven, 24 hours regarding Genesis, allow that Jesus’ statement that those who would be saved must eat His body and drink His blood should not be taken in its most apparent sense.
- 4.
Anselm himself does not discuss this question, probably because he held that Augustine’s discussion and answer was adequate. Augustine was the most influential philosopher in Anselm’s day, and had canvassed the question at length in Book 11 of his Confessions.
- 5.
Augustine and Boethius hint at it, but neither develops it or explicitly embraces it.
- 6.
Molinists, for example, believe that there are true propositions about what possible free agents would do in possible situations and these propositions are independent of the nature and the will of God. Anselm will have none of that (Rogers 2008, 148–152).
References
Davies, Brain, and G.R. Evans 1998. Anselm of Canterbury: The major works. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rogers, Katherin. 1997a. How a perfect being creates: Anselm’s theistic idealism. In The Anselmian approach to God and creation, ed. Katherin Rogers, 223–261. Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press.
Rogers, Katherin. 1997b. The Neoplatonic metaphysics and epistemology of Anselm of Canterbury. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press.
Rogers, Katherin. 2000. Perfect being theology. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press.
Rogers, Katherin. 2007a. Anselm and his Islamic contemporaries on divine necessity and eternity. American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 81: 373–393.
Rogers, Katherin. 2007b. Anselmian eternalism: The presence of a timeless God. Faith and Philosophy 24: 3–27.
Rogers, Katherin. 2008. Anselm on freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Rogers, K.A. (2013). Anselm’s Perfect God. In: Diller, J., Kasher, A. (eds) Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5219-1_12
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