From Augustine to Anselm
The Influence of De trinitate on the Monologion
By (author) FBA Asiedu
Anselm (1033-1109) described the Monologion, his first major theological work, as a model meditation on the divine essence; and he enjoined his potential critics to read Augustine’s De trinitate diligently and then judge the Monologion by it. In following Anselm’s admonition, the author has paid particular attention to Anselm’s claims about the persuasiveness of his arguments, and probed the cogency of some of the many arguments that make up the Monologion. The result is something like a critical companion to the Monologion. It is not meant to replace an actual reading of the Monologion, which is an experience worth having, since no interpretation or paraphrase can capture the feeling of wading through Anselm’s analytic arguments. The author have resisted the common tendency of reading the Monologion merely as a prelude to its more evocative sequel, the Proslogion. Because Anselm’s arguments attend to fundamental themes in philosophical theology, this book also provides comment on the state of early medieval philosophical theology and Anselm’s unique contribution to it. The book has implications not only for our understanding of Anselm’s thought and its relation to ancient and early medieval Christian tradition, but also for the ways in which theologians and philosophers since Anselm have appropriated his ideas. Since a good deal of that appropriation often overlooks the Monologion, this study should help towards a re-orientation to Anselm and his relevance to contemporary debates about theological method in general and analytic theology in particular.
Anselm (1033-1109) described the Monologion, his first major theological work, as a model meditation on the divine essence; and he enjoined his potential critics to read Augustine’s De trinitate diligently and then judge the Monologion by it. In following Anselm’s admonition, the author has paid particular attention to Anselm’s claims about the persuasiveness of his arguments, and probed the cogency of some of the many arguments that make up the Monologion. The result is something like a critical companion to the Monologion. It is not meant to replace an actual reading of the Monologion, which is an experience worth having, since no interpretation or paraphrase can capture the feeling of wading through Anselm’s analytic arguments. The author have resisted the common tendency of reading the Monologion merely as a prelude to its more evocative sequel, the Proslogion. Because Anselm’s arguments attend to fundamental themes in philosophical theology, this book also provides comment on the state of early medieval philosophical theology and Anselm’s unique contribution to it. The book has implications not only for our understanding of Anselm’s thought and its relation to ancient and early medieval Christian tradition, but also for the ways in which theologians and philosophers since Anselm have appropriated his ideas. Since a good deal of that appropriation often overlooks the Monologion, this study should help towards a re-orientation to Anselm and his relevance to contemporary debates about theological method in general and analytic theology in particular.
- By (author) FBA Asiedu
Other Titles in this Series
Tractatio Scripturarum. Philological, Exegetical, Rhetorical, and Theological Studies on Augustine’s Sermons
Ministerium Sermonis II
Volume 65
Irenee de Lyon et les debuts de la Bible chretienne
Actes de la Journee du 1.VII. 2014 a Lyon
Volume 77
Litterarum dulces fructus
Studies in Early Medieval Latin Culture in Honour of Michael W. Herren for his 80th Birthday
Volume 85
Latin Anonymous Sermons from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (AD 300-800)
Classification, Transmission, Dating
Volume 86
Biblical and Manichaean Citations in Titus of Bostra’s Against the Manichaeans
An Annotated Inventory
Volume 78
Les sermons du manuscrit de Vienne (ONB Ms lat. 4147)
Interrogations sur leur unite, leur datation et leur origine avec une nouvelle edition critique et une traduction annotee des vingt-deux sermons Leroy
Volume 95
Eriugena and Creation
Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Eriugenian Studies, held in honor of Edouard Jeauneau, Chicago, 9-12 November 2012
Volume 68
Hieronymus Romanus
Studies on Jerome and Rome on the Occasion of the 1600th Anniversary of his Death
Volume 87
Philosopher-monks, episcopal authority, and the care of the self
The Apophthegmata Patrum in fifth-century Palestine
Volume 80
Organising a Literary Corpus in the Middle Ages
The Corpus Nazianzenum and the Corpus Dionysiacum
Volume 96
L’ecclesiologie d’Anselme de Lucques (1063-1086) au service de Gregoire VII
Genese, contenu et impact de sa Collection canonique
Volume 69
The Manuscripts of Leo the Great’s Letters
The Transmission and Reception of Papal Documents in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Volume 83
A catalogue of works pertaining to the explanation of the creed in Carolingian manuscripts
Volume 63
Ordres et desordres dans les chaines exegetiques grecques
Order and Disorder in Greek Exegetical Catenae
Volume 100
Knowledge, Contemplation, and Lullism
Contributions to the Lullian Section at the SIEPM Congress, Freising, August 20-25, 2012
Volume 67
Les formes laiques de la philosophie
Raymond Lulle dans l'histoire de la philosophie medievale
Volume 81
A Supplement to Morton W. Bloomfield et al., ‘Incipits of Latin Works on the Virtues and Vices, 1100-1500 A.D.’
Volume 50
Vox praedicatoris
Latin Patristic Sermons, Their Transmission, and Their Reception (4th-15th Centuries)
Volume 98
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