The place of scripture in the thought and writings of Anselm of Canterbury

Résumé 0

The tools of ‘reason’ and their relation to biblical authority lay at the centre of the twelfth century’s intellectual renewals. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) occupied this contested territory, and his writings remain pivotal witnesses to the renegotiations of the relationship between ‘reason’, faith and the authority of sacred texts. Much of Anselm’s historical significance rests upon the presence or absence of scripture in his writings, as it was scripture’s alleged absence which characterised his most celebrated contributions to Christian thought. However, no comprehensive study of his approach to scripture exists in secondary scholarship. This dissertation offers a detailed investigation of the place of scripture in Anselm’s thought and writings. Its methodology employs a conceptualisation of ‘scripture’ which seeks to remain faithful to Anselm’s monastic context. Biblical texts, when ‘inhaled’ and ‘exhaled’ by monastic liturgical performance, should not be shorn of the associations they thereby accumulated. These verbal and pictorial clusters, which this dissertation terms ‘signa’, are first uncovered Anselm’s prayers and meditations, the texts which best capture his monastic life. This study then scrutinises the works in which scripture’s role seems most ambiguous - Anselm’s Proslogion, containing his ‘proof’ for God’s existence, his three philosophical dialogues, allegedly ‘pertaining to the study of sacred scripture’, and the Cur Deus homo, featuring his theory of atonement – for traces of those, or related, signa. These signa, standing out like braille from a page, reveal a more textured account of Anselm’s thought than many secondary reconstructions. Monastic themes, such as moral integration, purity of heart and the trajectory of humility overspill the boundaries of his devotional writings to shape his intellectual enquiry. What results is not only in a fresh interpretation of Anselm’s theology, but also in a more detailed picture of the movement from fides to intellectum, and of scripture’s place within it.