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Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. ... Read more

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Subtitle: Archbishop of Canterbury : a Contribution to a Knowledge of the Moral, Ecclesiastical, and Literary Life of the Eleventh and Twelfth CenturiesGeneral Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1842Original Publisher: T. JonesSubjects: Biography ... Read more

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This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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Although utterly convinced of the truth ofChristianity, Anselm of Canterbury struggled to makesense of his religion.He considered the doctrines offaith an invitation to question, to think, and to learn;and he devoted his life to confronting and understandingthe most elusive aspects of Christianity.His writingson matters such as free will, the nature of truth, andthe existence of God make Anselm one of the greatesttheologians and philosophers in history, and thistranslation provides readers with their firstopportunity to read his most important works within asingle volume. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A New English Edition of Anselm's Major Works
There are numerous English translations and Latin originals of Anselm of Canterbury's major theological and philosophical works available for general reader consumption.However, this newest addition to the already-multitudinous amount of editions allows easy access to all the important writings Anselm produced in his career.In order to fully grasp the convenience of having the works of Anselm easily available to the English reader in one place, it must be pointed out that (to my knowledge) there is not a single volume that brings all his works together, like "Monologion", "Proslogion", "Cur Deus Homo" (don't let the Latin titles scare you; it's all in English), or some of his lesser known writings such as "On Truth", "On the Fall of the Devil", and "On the Procession of the Holy Spirit", and more.Those interested in reading the full spectrum of Anselm's thought have usually been compelled to look for multiple volumes, since a single publication may only contain one or two of the most important of Anselm's works.But now there is a single text (i.e., this one) that enables readers to look at one compendium for Anselm's theological and philosophical speculations in good English translation.

Perhaps a plus in the volume is the fact that two excellent scholars, G.R. Evans and Brian Davies, OP, co-edited the compilation of these works into the volume published by Oxford University Press.G.R. Evans lectures and researches at Oxford University, and is well known for work in Medieval Christian philosophy and theology.Brian Davies earned his Ph.D. from King's College in London, and is a reputable expert on Medieval philosophy; he works at Fordham University in New York.Both are very capable and rigorous academians, having equally contributed to the very informative (but not longwinded) introduction to the life of Anselm and the basic content and arguments in his individual works included in this monograph.Similarly, they have included notes on different translations and the original Latin text of Anselm to help the reader and/or scholar.

Oxford World's Classics' "Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works" is a fitting addition to any private or public theological, philosophical, patristics, medieval, or British history library.Instructors of college or graduate-level courses on theology, philosophy, medieval studies, or Anselmian studies would greatly benefit from assigning this text in their courses; it is a fairly inexpensive volume (especially in its paperback edition), but allows students to handle the works of Anselm from one source instead of requiring them to seek them out among a vast amount of translations and publications.

Christian Theology Never Smelled So Sweet.
St. Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works is an incredible book. His proofs are amazingly written and although some of the writings, the wording is a little tricky, it is for the most part clear and concise. His proofs really allow a non-christian and a Christian to fully grasp Why God became Man and the foundation of Christianity such as: How does one know that God exists. Everyone should read this whether they think they know all there is to know or whether one has never even though about this stuff.

Critical, repetitive, for the theologically tenacious only.
Anselm is most famously identified with his ontological arguments. This collection begins with the Monologian, a soliloquy (or meditation), and the Proslogian, an allocution, Anselm's go at a more robust ontology. It is true that classical ontology has not been highly regarded in the modern and post-modern academies; the "science of being" is metaphysical and not something that fits well with modern methods, or uses, of inquiry. This is so because classic ontology, as developed notably by Anaxagoras, Plato, Plotinus, etc, sees the central question of being (i.e. existence, essence, the-thing-in-itself) as transcending all sense-based inquiry (empiricism). In modern thought, 'pure reason' as such recoils from a ubiquitous relativism (please notice the self-contradiction) and broadly nihilistic presuppositions. An epistemologically and psychologically troubled mix! It is not the case that the modern thinker has 'refuted' ontological arguments so much as it is the case that he fancies them odd and tedious, presumes them useless, and conveniently pronounces them "meaningless". If, after surveying the problems of the modern/post-modern views, you think Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus might have been onto something, Anselm may interest you (although he may put you to sleep with his deliberate and repetitive arguments).
On First Philosophy:
"Supreme truth does not admit at all of the big and the small, the long and the short, which belong to spatial and temporal distension." From that which "time and space stipulate, I do not doubt that the supreme substance is exempt." (Mono. 22)
". . . the supreme spirit . . . is not like anything. It is the original." (M. 32)
On the Trinity (here Anselm hoped that Augustine would have concurred):
"Father [supreme essence, consciousness], Son [understanding, Word of the supreme essence], and Spirit [love, mutuality of supreme essence and the begotten Word], each on its own, as individual, knows and understands -- while all three taken together are not three knowers and understanders but one single knower, one single understander. . . one speaker and one thing spoken; one wisdom in them that speaks, one substance in them that is spoken. From which it follows that there is only one Word. . . A conclusion that has something of the wonderful and unaccountable about it!" (M. 63)
"Perhaps it is explicable -- and hence our conclusions true -- only up to a point, while being incomprehensible, and therefore ineffable, as a whole . . . the supreme essence is above and beyond all other natures. Thus when we talk about it, the words may be common . . . but not their meanings." (M. 65)
The Proslogian contains Anselm's famous ontological argument "that God truly exists." "That-than-which-nothing-greater-can-be-thought" (alternately, that-than-which-a-greater-cannot-be-thought) either must be the highest/truest/purest thought that can exist or the highest/truest/purest reality. Since we readily discern that the highest reality must be greater than the highest thought short of such a reality, it follows that something-than-which-nothing-greater-can-be-thought must [supra]exist, and must be beyond containment by the greatest thought-- which must be less than itself. Although all human language is inadequate to the task of naming (i.e., defining) this "something", it is what we call God.

Like Augustine, whom he regarded highly, Anselm says that evil is nothing, as it is most rightly understood as being the privation of good. "So we should say that injustice is nothing but the privation of justice." He acknowledges that to speak of evil and injustice imparts upon them an apparent "thing" status, the words are, after all, nouns. But this is a problem of mere language, not reality. Nonetheless, given that we cannot even speak of evil and injustice without elevating them to being "something," Anselm says that in this sense they are "quasi-something."

Many works in this volume, De Grammatico (an essay on logic and linguistics), the treatises On Truth, On Free Will, and so forth, use the classic framework of teacher-student dialogs. The translation is quite readable although the material itself is mostly dense, deliberate, and redundant (which is why many avoid or reject metaphysics -- a curious circumstance given that the human mind can make no judgments without metaphysical suppositions). There are some lengthy discussions of the logic of Trinitarian monotheistic theology that are reminiscent of Plotinus and Augustine (also Paul, e.g., Gal. 4.6). De Concordia is Anselm's attempt to reconcile divine "foreknowledge" with the concepts of predestination and human freedom. He says, "It should also be understood that the word 'foreknowledge', as also the word 'predestine' are not used of God literally, for in him there is no before or after, but all things are present to him at once." Boethius argued the matter more directly (and enjoyably) five centuries earlier.
Anselm's treatment of the Atonement, 'Why God Became Man', explains the debt humanity has incurred by way of transgression (sin), a debt man must pay but cannot. Simply put, only God is capable of paying man's debt to God, yet man must pay it, because it is man's debt. Thus the logical necessity of the Incarnation and the Atonement (and of both mercy and justice). Anything less would amount to the Immutable abandoning His will for man, something that, being immutable, He cannot do (by reason of definition and logical mutual exclusion). For this reason Christ's crucifixion was not punishment for sin but was his willful alleviation of the ultimate necessity of punishment.
There are some interesting passages here, including a few gems, but the collection is slow-going and repetitive. You'll spend a lot of time in this book, encountering many ideas for the twentieth painstaking time. A prudent approach may be to skim through the texts topically, reading it 'surgically'.
While perhaps only his ontological argument was original -- although rather Platonic, Anselm's writings contain many important and influential examinations of Christian theology. Recommended for the tenacious theologian only.

Important for understanding how we got where we are
Anselm of Canterbury is one of the most important theologians in the history of the Western Church. That means that his ideas most likely have influenced the way you think about the world, whether you realize it or not. It also means that the ideas he taught have reached us in a very garbled form. Take his doctrine of the "atonement," for instance (you can read it in "Why God Became Man" in this volume). Anselm taught that by sinning humans have failed to give God the "honor" due him as our creator and as a supremely great and good and beautiful being. This creates a "debt" that must be paid back. We can't pay it, because even if we were perfectly good (which we can't be), that would only be our due anyway. It wouldn't pay back the original "debt" incurred by Adam and Eve. That debt is so great that only God himself could pay it. Yet the debt had to be paid by a human being. So God became human and paid the debt on our behalf.

This notion lies behind hundreds of evangelical and fundamentalist sermons which you can hear in churches throughout this country every Sunday. It also is partly responsible for the notion of God a lot of nonreligious people reject--a cosmic tyrant who demands perfect obedience and threatens us with punishment if we don't comply.

Yet Anselm actually _never_ taught that Jesus was "punished" on our behalf. On the contrary, the debt was paid precisely so that no punishment would be necessary. Jesus' death on the cross was not a sadistic punishment exacted by an angry God, but was the culmination of his absolute obedience to God's will. It was that obedience, completed in his sacrificial death, that paid "the debt we could not owe."

For Anselm, and for Christians generally, honoring God is the highest and most joyful thing we can do. It is the most truly human and humanizing activity imaginable. This is tied to Anselm's notion of God (expressed in his "Proslogion," also in this volume). For Anselm, God is the being than which nothing greater can be imagined. This isn't primarily about an omnipotent being who can make us do things. It's about a being so unimaginably glorious that the greatest happiness anyone can know is just to be in his presence. To turn away from a being like that (knowing what we're doing, which most of us don't) is to be something less than we could be. Obviously this is a bit of a modern interpretation of Anselm, but I don't think it contradicts him.

I do think, though, that there are better ways to think about the Atonement than Anselm's. Earlier Christians had spoken of Jesus' death and resurrection primarily as a victory over death and the devil--what the baptismal vows in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer call the "forces that corrupt and destroy the creatures of God." Anselm didn't like this notion, because he thought it limited God's power and gave the devil some sort of independent existence (and in some versions even legal "rights"). But I think that that understanding of Jesus' saving work is probably truer to the Bible and Christian tradition than Anselm's.

But even if--indeed especially if--you disagree with Anselm, he's worth reading. He and the "scholastic" theologians who followed him helped shape Christian thinking in the West for the past thousand years. They are partly responsible for the fact that Western Christians--Catholics and Protestants--think so differently from the Orthodox.

Good Classic Christian Reading
Anselm was a very important author for Medieval Christianity.He contributed the Ontological argument for the existence (or should I say subsitence) of God, as well as formulating verbally the substitutionaryatonement of Christ. This book provides these as well as a host of otherrich classical Christian thoughts.It is difficult reading, but excellentin that it makes one think, believer or non-believer, in the metaphysicalrealities of life.I would have to say a must for anyone interested in thedevelopment of Christian thinking, as well as Philosophical development. ... Read more

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St. Anselm-(1033-1109), Archbishop of Canterbury
Although born at Aosta in Alpine Italy and educated in Normandy, Anselm became a Benedictine monk, teacher, and abbot at Bec and continued his ecclesiastical career in England. Having been appointed the second Norman archbishop of Canterbury in 1093, Anselm secured the Westminster Agreement of 1107, guaranteeing the (partial) independence of the church from the civil state.
In a series of short works such as De Libertate Arbitrii (On Free Will), De Casu Diaboli (The Fall of the Devil), and the lengthier dialogue Cur Deus Homo (Why God became Man), Anselm propounded a satisfaction theory of the atonement, upon which the incarnation promises relief from the strict demands of divine justice. He defended a notion of the relation between philosophy and theology that, like Augustine's, emphasized the methodological priority of faith over reason, since truth is to be achieved only through "fides quaerens intellectum" ("faith seeking understanding"). Anselm Anselm's combination of Christianity, neoplatonic metaphysics, and Aristotelean logic in the form of dialectical question-and-answer was an important influence in the development scholasticism during the next several centuries.

As a philosopher, Anselm is most often remembered for his attempts to prove the existence of god: In De Veritate (Of Truth) he argued that all creatures owe their being and value to god as the source of all truth, to whom a life lived well is the highest praise. In the Monologion he described deity as the one most truly good thing, from which all real moral values derive and whose existence is required by the reality of those values.

Most famously, in the Proslogion (Addition), Anselm proposed the famous Ontological Argument, according to which god is understood as "aliquid quod maius non cogitari potest" ("that than which nothing greater can be conceived"). The being so conceived must necessarily exist in reality as well as in thought, he argued, since otherwise it would in fact be possible to conceive something greater—namely, something exactly simliar except that it really does exist. Thus, at least for Anselmian believers guided by a prior faith, god must truly exist as the simple, unified source of all perfections, a reality that excludes corruption, imperfection, and deception of every sort. ... Read more

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A great mind at work!
St. Anselm's Basic Writings include: Anselm's Proslogium, Monologium, Cur Deus Homo, Gaunilo's In Behalf of the Fool, as well as Anselm's reply to Gaunilo. This volume also contains an overall introduction by Charles Hartshorne followed by thought provoking commentary from Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibnitz, Kant, and Hegel, among others, primarily in response to what has been know as Anselm's Ontological Argument since it was referred to as such by Immanuel Kant. Anselm's works alone make this compilation worth reading. However, as the author's proofs have inspired debate for close to one thousand years, it is extremely beneficial when contemplating these works to become familiar with how some of history's most renowned thinkers have responded to Anselm's ideas. What might make this particular volume stand out among others is the fact that the reader has access to Anselm's reply to one of the most time tested criticisms of his argument produced by Gaunilo, whereas so many of his other critics went unanswered.

The Monologium, which Anselm originally titled An Example of Meditation on the Grounds of Faith, was written to expound, as the original title indicates, thoughts that Anselm arrived upon while meditating on the Being of God. In this work Anselm seeks to demonstrate that, even if one has denied or has no knowledge of a Supreme Nature, one could become familiar with certain truths regarding this Nature through reason alone. Anselm's goal in this work is that of not having to rely upon Biblical Scripture in and of itself as a means to understanding the Nature of the Supreme Being. He argues that there must be some one thing that is supremely good, through which every good thing has their goodness. Anselm builds this argument on a foundation of degrees. When one speaks of different things being good in varying degrees, it must be understood as being good through goodness while goodness itself is the same in each thing. It follows, then, that everything that is good to whatever degree is good through some one thing that is a great good, being goodness itself. Furthermore, anything that is good through something else is less-than that through which it is good; that which is goodness itself, and not good through some other thing, is supremely good. Anselm applies this principle to greatness, justness, dignity, and existence at great lengths to demonstrate the Nature of the Supreme Being.

The Proslogium, originally titled Faith Seeking Understanding, is that work from which St. Anselm's Ontological Argument was drawn. Anselm's motivation for this book was that of finding one argument for the existence of God that would only require itself as proof, as opposed to the numerous arguments posited in the Monologium. One should be encouraged to read and understand Anselm's argument in the context of the entire Proslogium (and Monologium for that matter) as opposed to extracting the one brief chapter in which this Argument is found. Much is disclosed of Anselm's reasoning not only by conceiving of it within its intended context but also by realizing that Anselm "seeks to understand what he believes." This idea of Faith Seeking Understanding, in the opinion of some, might also be responsible for undue criticism towards the author's defense of his work to the Catholic Monk Gaunilo's response to Anselm's Argument. That is, Anselm's defense might have been different had he been unable to appeal to the critics Faith.

The final book in this compilation is Cur Deus Homo, or Why God Became Man. This book is written in the form of a conversation between Anselm and fellow monk named Boso who assumes the role of questioner. While Anselm and Boso both agree that what they believe by faith requires no reason, reasons provide believers with comfort in the rationality of their faith. To achieve the goal of finding their faith rational by the means of simple reason they try to abstain from appealing to Scripture, and manage to accomplish this to some great extent. In this book Anselm does not to shy from any questions that might be brought against such a concept and, as a result, provides many arguments that have stood the test of time. Some have considered this work to be St. Anselm's masterpiece.

St. Anselm's Basic Writings is an excellent read and recommended to anyone who thinks they are even remotely interested in reading it. While some of the author's arguments might not be as solid as he believed them to be at the time, Anselm has been disregarded to an unreasonable degree. Anyone who has only ever heard about Anselm in an introductory philosophy course or has built an opinion of his thoughts without reading his work should certainly take a deeper look and consider his arguments as he intended. Much can be learned from this great thinker and it is a great shame that his name has become somewhat synonymous with faulty logic in the minds of so many without having the opportunity to read his words within their intended context.

"Great Defintion for the Existence of God"
St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, philosopher, father of scholastism, and doctor of the highly-esteemed Ontological Argument has in this work (Proslogium, Monologium, Cur Deus Homo,and Reply to Gaunilo)decribed and defended the nature of the most Trascendent Being in a profound yet simplistic manner.

He begins his treatise stating that "God is greater than that of which can be conceived."While at the same time he emphasizes that we must not be intimidated by God's incomprehensiblity, but rather that we are reconciled to the Divine Knowledge by a means of simply believing in Him.Anselm quotes from (Psalms 14:1) which says that "the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God".So to Anselm the one who does not believe is the one who will never gain understanding, and to the believer, he says that, "they set straight the path to all wisdom and understanding."Thus, an incomprehensible Being, reveals what he wills to the ones who seek Him diligently.This is the scope of his work in rudiments, but Anselm expounds with clarity on each and every subject at hand that he works with.So as the reader you never feel that you are getting to little, or to much information.Also you will invariably receive new insights (which is the bread and butter of the Ontological Argument)no matter how well read and learned you are on the subject.

The introduction to this book proves itself to be invaluable by summarizing the basic philosophy of Anselm.It also contains refutations and defenses to the Ontological Argument by some of the most reknowed philosophers of all time such as Kant, Hegel, Locke, Spinoza, and Descartes', to name a few.This way you can gain a better perspective of the way you will deal with the subject matter will reading.Despite reading a few of these counter-arguments I found that none of them could add to, or take away from the sheer purity of Anslem's argument.

Deemed as the second Augustine , Anselm kept an extreme adherrence to the Holy Sriptures, the edicts promulgated by the Nicene Fathers, and an emphasis rooted deeply in the power of pure reason, which rightly has acredited him such an honorabletitle.

So I would strongly suggest purchasing this book.It has been a rewarding and valuable asset to have on my shelf and I hope it makes its way to yours. ... Read more

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This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature. ... Read more

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Contains all of the intellectual writings of St. Anselm (1033-1109). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

One Heckuva Deal
There are two ways that you could rank this book, either on the basis of the content by Anselm or as a packaging of Anselm's writings. I'll talk about the latter. If you're at all interested in Anselm's thought, this book is a great deal. A hard-bound edition of all of Anselm's philosophical and theological treatises for eleven bucks? What's not to like? I haven't studied the translations in detail, but from glancing at them, they seem fine, and render Anselm into fairly clear English. This book also includes a short and useful introduction, which gives an overview of Anselm's life and works, reprinted from the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Great translation, allows Anselm to speak
The main problem with translations, obviously, is that they all too often say more about the translator(s) than the work translated.The Jowett translations of Plato are cases in point, on the negative side, and Mitchell's translation of Rilke are another, on the positive side.This series of translations by Hopkins and Richardson fall decidedly into the positive side.

I personally have a love/hate relationship with the great saint of Canterbury.On the one hand, as a philosopher his works on ontology and the "proofs" of God, while ultimately refuted, nevertheless have served as fodder for nearly every thinker since his time.I am constantly amazed by his depth and committment to inquiry.Many have nuanced or adapted his arguments, particularly the (in)famous "ontological" proof, and Anselm to this day still enjoys a wide readership and is likely to remain popular, not only as history, but, like Plato, as a living intellectual force.

On the other hand, Anselm is responsible for bequeathing to the Christian world the feudal satisfaction theory of the atonement (Cur Deus Homo?, wonderfully presented in this translation).Anslem won the war with Abelard, and we inherited the God whose honor has to be satisfied.I dare say most Christians today have no idea that Anselm's theory was new in his day, and yet was so brilliant (in his day) that it has stood as our paradigm for the atonement ever since.There were myriad interpretations of the atonement before Anselm.Augustine would never had recognized Anselm's theory, committed as he was to a "ransom" theory, and Paul's mystical-communal "en ho christos" concept of the work of Christ certainly stands in contrast to Anselm's feudal monarchial view. Still, history and the church was with Anselm, so we today take for granted the satisfaction theory of Anselm.Sadly, the satisfaction theory is one of the most infortunate (to be kind) beliefs ever adopted by the Christian church.

Five stars for the translation, minus one because I cannot give even the mighty Anselm a perfect score.The message is more important than the medium, however satisfying the medium may be. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the worlds literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more