Proslogium; Monologium; An Appendix In Behalf Of The Fool By Gaunilon; And Cur Deus Homo
Translated from the Latin
By
Sidney Norton Deane, B. A.
with an introduction, bibliography, and reprints of the opinions of leading philosophers and writers on the ontological argument
CHICAGO
The Open Court Publishing Company
1939
THE present volume of St. Anselm’s most important philosophical and theological writings contains: (1) The Proslogium (2) the Monologium, (3) the Cur Deus Homo, and (4) by way of historical complement, an Appendix to the Monologium entitled In Behalf of the Fool by Gaunilon, a monk of Marmoutiers. The Proslogium (which, though subsequent in point of time to the Monologium, is here placed first, as containing the famous ontological argument), the Monologium and the Appendix thereto were translated by Mr. Sidney Norton Deane, of New Haven, Conn.; the Cur Deus Homo was rendered by James Gardiner Vose, formerly of Milton, Conn., and later of Providence, R. I., and published in 1854 and 1855 in the Bibliotheca Sacra, then issued at Andover, Mass., by Warren F. Draper. The thanks of the reading public are due to all these gentlemen for their gratuitous labors in behalf of philosophy.
Welch’s recent book Anselm and His Work, by its accessibility, renders any extended biographical notice of Anselm unnecessary. We append, therefore, merely a few brief paragraphs from Weber’s admirable History of Philosophy on Anselm’s position in the world of thought, and we afterwards add (this, at the suggestion of Prof. George M. Duncan, of Yale University) a series of quotations regarding Anselm’s most characteristic contribution to philosophy—the ontological argument—from Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibnitz, Kant, Hegel, Dorner, Lotze, and Professor Flint. A bibliography also has been compiled. Thus the work will give full material and indications for the original study of one of the greatest exponents of Christian doctrine.
Anselm’s Philosophy
(After Weber.1)
“The first really speculative thinker after Scotus is St. Anselmus, the disciple of Lanfranc. He was born at Aosta (1033), entered the monastery of Bec in Normandy (1060), succeeded Lanfranc as Abbot (1078), and as Archbishop of Canterbury (1093). He died in 1109. He left a great number of writings, the most important of which are: the Dialogus de grammatico, the Monologium de divinitatis essentia sive Exemplum de ratione fidei, the Proslogium sive Fides quœrens intellectum, the De veritate, the De fide trinitatis, and the Cur Deus Homo?
“The second Augustine, as St. Anselmus had been called, starts out from the same principle as the first; he holds that faith precedes all reflection and all discussion concerning religious things. The unbelievers, he says, strive to understand because they do not believe; we, on the contrary, strive to understand because we believe. They and we have the same object in view; but inasmuch as they do not believe, they cannot arrive at their goal, ...
![]() |
About The Major Works of Anselm of CanterburyFor nearly one thousand years, theologians, philosophers, and Christian apologists have felt the effects of Anselm of Canterbury. Anselm’s theological method was rigorous, and represented a seismic shift in medieval thought. He is widely considered the founder scholastic theology, and he has been called the church’s “second Augustine.” His treatise on the atonement, Cur Deus Homo was the first to systematically articulate the penal substitution theory of the atonement, which was later developed by John Calvin and widely embraced by Reformed and evangelical churches. He was also the first to construct and systematize the ontological argument for the existence of God. The Major Works of Anselm of Canterbury contains Anselm’s important theological and philosophical writings: the Proslogium, the Monologium, Cur Deus Homo, and Reply to Guanilon. |
Support Info | worksanselm |