St. Anselm of Canterbury

Introduction & Top Questions
Early life and career
Appointment as archbishop of Canterbury
The satisfaction theory of redemption
Final years

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

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Luca della Robbia: St. Anselm of Canterbury

At a Glance

Saint Anselm of Canterbury summary

Quizzes

Agathon (centre) greeting guests in "Plato's Symposium" oil on canvas by Anselm Feuerbach, 1869; in the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe, Germany.

Philosophy 101

Related Questions

How did Bec become a center of monastic learning under St. Anselm of Canterbury?
How did Cur Deus homo explain why Christ became human?
How did Edmer contribute to knowledge of St. Anselm of Canterbury’s life?
How did Gaunilo challenge St. Anselm of Canterbury’s ontological argument?
How did René Descartes reformulate the ontological argument?
How did St. Anselm of Canterbury become involved in the Investiture Controversy?
How did St. Anselm of Canterbury become prior of the monastery at Bec?
How did St. Anselm of Canterbury connect faith and reason in his philosophy?
How did St. Anselm of Canterbury reply to Gaunilo’s criticism?
How did St. Anselm of Canterbury use different degrees of goodness in the Monologion?
How did St. Anselm of Canterbury’s approach to faith resemble that of St. Augustine?
How did St. Anselm of Canterbury’s father respond to his wish to enter monastic life?
How did St. Anselm of Canterbury’s satisfaction theory influence Roman Catholic and Protestant theology?
How did St. Anselm of Canterbury’s theory of redemption differ from the idea that Christ paid a debt to the Devil?
How did the Westminster Agreement influence the later Concordat of Worms?
How did the Westminster Agreement of 1107 settle the dispute between St. Anselm of Canterbury and King Henry I?
How does St. Anselm of Canterbury’s ontological argument reason from the idea of God to God’s existence?
How does the idea of necessary existence appear in later versions of St. Anselm of Canterbury’s argument?
What did St. Anselm of Canterbury mean by the phrase “faith seeking understanding”?
What does “a being than which none greater can be conceived” mean in St. Anselm of Canterbury’s argument?
What was the original title of St. Anselm of Canterbury’s Proslogion?
When and where was St. Anselm of Canterbury born?
When did St. Anselm of Canterbury become abbot of Bec?
When did St. Anselm of Canterbury die?
When did St. Anselm of Canterbury take his monastic vows?
When did St. Anselm of Canterbury write Cur Deus homo?
When did St. Anselm of Canterbury write the Proslogion?
When was St. Anselm of Canterbury recognized as a doctor of the church?
Which church doctrine did St. Anselm of Canterbury defend at the Council of Bari in 1098?
Which later philosophers accepted versions of St. Anselm of Canterbury’s ontological argument?
Which places did St. Anselm of Canterbury visit before entering the monastery at Bec?
Which questions about God did St. Anselm of Canterbury try to answer through reason?
Which subjects is St. Anselm of Canterbury considered the patron saint of?
Which symbols of office did King Henry I give up the right to use in investing bishops and abbots?
Who was Gaunilo of Marmoutier?
Who was Lanfranc, and how did he influence St. Anselm of Canterbury?
Why did Immanuel Kant reject St. Anselm of Canterbury’s ontological argument?
Why did King Henry I recall St. Anselm of Canterbury to England after William II Rufus died?
Why did St. Anselm of Canterbury argue that God cannot exist only in the mind?
Why did St. Anselm of Canterbury believe that only someone both divine and human could reconcile humanity with God?
Why did St. Anselm of Canterbury leave England for Rome in 1097?
Why did St. Anselm of Canterbury refuse King William II Rufus’s payment demand?
Why did the monks at Bec ask St. Anselm of Canterbury to write the Monologion?
Why had the archbishopric of Canterbury been vacant before St. Anselm of Canterbury’s appointment?
Why is St. Anselm of Canterbury considered a founder of Scholasticism?
Why was St. Anselm of Canterbury exiled during King Henry I’s reign?
What was the Investiture Controversy involving St. Anselm of Canterbury?
How was John Wycliffe involved with politics?
Who was Boniface VIII before becoming pope?
What were Boniface VIII’s significant achievements during his papacy?
What was the conflict between Boniface VIII and Philip IV of France?
Who was Emanuel Swedenborg?
Why did Emanuel Swedenborg study theology?
Why is Thomas Hobbes important?
What was Thomas Hobbes’s childhood like?
What is René Descartes known for?

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External Websites

Christian Classics Ethereal Library - Biography of Saint Anselm
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Anselm of Canterbury
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Biography of Anselm of Canterbury

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Anselm of Canterbury - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

St. Anselm of Canterbury

archbishop and philosopher

Written by

John Arthur Kemp

Professor of Medieval History, Loyola University, Chicago, 1959–63. Author of History of Europe to 1500.

John Arthur Kemp

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Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

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History

St. Anselm of Canterbury (born 1033/34, Aosta, Lombardy [Italy]—died April 21, 1109, possibly at Canterbury, Kent, England; feast day April 21) was an Italian-born theologian and philosopher, known as the father of Scholasticism, a philosophical school of thought that dominated the Middle Ages. He was recognized in modern times as the originator of the ontological argument for the existence of God (based on the idea of an absolutely perfect being, the fact of the idea...

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