- Anselm is known for his Proslogion which argues for the existence of God.
- Anselm of Canterbury (Wikipedia)
Anselm of Canterbury OSB (/ˈænsɛlm/; 1033/4–1109), also called Anselm of Aosta (Italian: Anselmo d’Aosta) after his birthplace and Anselm of Bec (French: Anselme du Bec) after his monastery, was an Italian Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher and theologian of the Catholic Church, who held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109. After his death, he was canonized as a saint; his feast day is 21 April.
- Anselm of Canterbury was an 11th-century archbishop, philosopher, and theologian of the Catholic Church.
- Despite his lack of recognition in this field in his own time, Anselm is now famed as the originator of the ontological argument for the existence of God and of the satisfaction theory of atonement.
- Medieval Sourcebook: Anselm (1033-1109): Proslogium (fordham.edu)
In this brief work the author aims at proving in a single argument the existence of God, and whatsoever we believe of God. –The difficulty of the task. –The author writes in the person of one who contemplates God, and seeks to understand what he believes. To this work he had given this title: Faith Seeking Understanding. He finally named it Proslogium, –that is, A Discourse.
- Proslogion
- The first ontological argument in Western Christian tradition was proposed by Saint Anselm of Canterbury in his 1078 work, Proslogion (Latin: Proslogium, lit. ‘Discourse [on the Existence of God]’), in which he defines God as “a being than which no greater can be conceived,” and argues that such a being must exist in the mind, even in that of the person who denies the existence of God.