Anselm has given his name to this blog, so it seems fitting that the first post under Theology & Science should belong to him. He left us a legacy, one that continues to fascinate and irritate thinkers to the present day. He also leaves a message about the nature and purpose of each individual’s quest.
Anselm portrait detail on digital silk ~ jturner graphic
Anselm’s legacy is the so-called “ontological argument” that he devised as proof that there is a God. He wrote about it in a work called the Proslogion, and he wanted this proof
- to work by reason,
- to be compatible with his faith as a Christian, and therefore
- to show that this faith could be in harmony with reason.
Reason’s purpose, for Anselm, was to understand what faith believes, or “faith seeking understanding.”
Do you believe that
- the ideal is more real than the actual reality you experience, or
- existing in reality is better than existing only in thought?
These beliefs have echoes of Plato, the Greek philosopher whose ideas influenced Anselm. In the first sense, the ideal is something that exists “only in the imagination; desirable or perfect but not likely to become a reality.” Plato believed there was a “Form of the Good” that was ideal. Therefore it was more real than any particular good that exists in the world.
Even though the Proslogion was written nearly 1,000 years ago, people still argue about Anselm’s ontological argument. Is his definition of God as “a being than which nothing greater can be conceived” a key philosophical truth, or is it a meaningless statement? All the thoughtful reasoning and scientific discoveries since then have not been able to settle this question.
I think Anselm’s legacy is more than his proof for God’s existence, which is somewhat mind-twisting when read in full. At least, that’s how I felt when I heard it in my first year at university. My quest has been to understand more of the what and how of God’s actions in the world. These have been reliable and consistent in my life, so for me belief in God’s existence isn’t an issue. What I love about the Proslogion is not Anselm’s argument, but his passionate, one-on-one engagement with God:
“Come now, O Lord my God. Teach my heart where and how to seek you, where and how to find you. Lord, if you are not here, where shall I seek you, since you are absent? But if you are everywhere, why do I not see you, since you are present?”
Branches of human knowledge ~ æssmith photo
Searching for answers from God and from the world is a never-ending adventure, unique to each person. A new treasure unearthed comes in a shape special to its discoverer, to be shared with others and offered as a humble gift to God. Then the questions begin again, “Is it true? Is it real? Am I sure? What about … ?” In this way the next stretch of the quest begins.
Anselm’s Proslogion, for all its outsized role in the history of philosophy, is no more than a twig in the whole sum of our human knowledge tree. Each twig, each leaf, each bud counts, and each explorer contributes to the growth of the whole as only that person can.