Anselm

Theology starts with the assumption that God exists

Philosophy take nothing as a given

Faith is definitionally unprovable

Anselm of Canterbury

Ontological Arguments

- God is the best possible thing we can imagine

- God is that which no greater can be conceived
o God must be exist.
o Two ways in something can exist
 Only in our minds and strictly imaginary
 Exist in our minds but also in reality
 Any good thing is better if it existed and not only in our minds
- If we define God as the greatest thing that we can conjure up in our minds, the only thing that
could possibly be greater than him would be a real version
- Logical Argument Form
o God is the greatest thing we can think of
o Things can exist only in our imaginations, or they can also exist in reality
o Things that exist in reality are always better than things that exist only in our
imaginations
o If God existed only in our imaginations, he wouldn’t be the greatest thing that we can
think of, because God in reality would be better
o Therefore, God must exist

Criticism: fallacy of circular reasoning

- You assume the very thing you are trying to prove

- You can make the same argument to prove the existence of anything you most wanted, but it
wouldn’t make it real

Anselm: it only works for necessary beings

Kant: Existence is not a predicate

- If God exists, then he must be the greatest being we can imagine – but that does not mean that
He does exist
- Predicates add to the essence of their subjects, but they can’t be used to prove their existence
Reading:

1. In which the mind is aroused to the contemplation of God

2. That God really exists

I do not seek to understand so that I may believe, but I believe so that I may understand; I believe that
unless I do believe I shall not understand

Whatever is understood is in the understanding

If that than which nothing greater can be thought exists in the understanding alone, then this thing than
which nothing greater can be thought is something than which a greater can be thought

3. That which it is not possible to think of as not existing

It is possible to think of something existing which it is not possible to think of as not existing, and that is
greater than something that can be thought not to exist

- If God can be thought of as not existing, or does not exist, then there is something greater than
Him
- if someone’s mind could think of something better than you, the creature would rise higher than
its creator and would judge its creator
4. That what the fool said in his heart is something that it is not possible to think

Whoever understands the nature of God, that which nothing is greater, cannot think of him as not
existing

5. God is whatever it is better to be than not to be; he exists in himself alone; and he creates
everything else out of nothing
a. It is better to be than not to be. Whatever is not that, is something less
6. How can he [be] perceive[d], though he is not a body
a. God knows all things supremely, just not through the senses like humans. Since
everything a human senses, he ‘knows’, and God is omniscient, then He knows
everything
7. How he is omnipotent, though there are many things he cannot do
a. The things that God cannot do are stuff of powerlessness, they are the lack thereof
power. They do it because someone else has power over them (lie when you want to
hide the truth), but God is never in that position
8. How he is both compassionate and beyond passion
a. God is compassionate according to our meaning and not His own
9. How he who is entirely and supremely righteous spares the wicked; and that it is right for him
to have compassion on the wicked
a. The answer is that we really do not know. God is just so supremely good that we cannot
understand his intentions
i. the highest good wills it
 b. You are compassionate because you are entirely good, and you are not entirely good
unless you are entirely righteous, so you are compassionate because you are entirely
righteous
10. How it is right for him to both punish and pardon the wicked
a. Both are cases of justice, when God punishes them it is just because they deserve it.
When God pardons them, it is just because God’s goodness
11. How all the ways of the lord are mercy and truth’ and yet the lord is righteous in all his ways
a. When God chooses to condemn some and also save some under equally evil things, we
cannot know the reason behind. But because He is all powerful and is compassionate,
He does these things
12. That he is the very life which he lives and the same is true of other attributes
a. He is not derived from anything; contingency theory by Aquinas
13. How he alone is without limits or time, yet other spirits also are without limits and time
a. Only God is in all things, transcendent Other spirits are limited in this way – they cannot
be at all things all at once
14. How and why God is both seen and not seen by those who seek him
a. Because we may know of Him, we may sense him and know He exists, but we can’t
really fully grasp who God is
15. That he is greater than it is possible to think
a. He exceeds our limitations of conception of greatness
16. That this is the light inaccessible in which he dwells
a. Same concept as no 14 and 15. God is like a blinding light that we cannot see through,
and God dwells in that aura. God is within us and around us, but we cannot experience
him fully (?)
17. That in God, in his own unutterable way, are harmony, smell, taste, softness, beauty
a. We just cannot sense these things because we have been stained by sin
18. That there are no parts in God or in his eternity, which is himself
a. God does not have “eyes” all over the universe; the entire universe is him. God does not
exist in certain spaces, because he transcends space and time itself
19. That he is neither place nor time, but all is in him
a. Same concept as no 18
20. That he is before and beyond all eternity
a. Still same concept as 18, 19
b. Same concept as Aquinas contingency theory; everything else can be thought of to have
an end, but not God. God is infinite, eternal. God is always present
21. Whether this is the ‘age of the age’, or ‘ages of ages’
a. God cannot be split; he is the ruler, conceptually, and not a part of it. He is the entirety
of space
22. That he alone is what he is and who he is
a. Basically necessary being
23. That this good is equally Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and that this is the one Being necessary,
which is entirely and wholly and solely good
 a. Cannot be split, God’s oneness is equal with the trinity
24. Surmises about the nature and extent of this good
a. If good things are pleasant, what more is the giver of good things?
25. Of the good that belongs to those who enjoy it, and how great it is
a. Enjoy it in unity with all others share in the greatness
b. Ask and we shall receive
c. God fulfills our joys
26. Whether this is the fullness of joy promised by the Lord
a. We rejoice, and we enter into the joy that God promises. Not the other way around.
b. It may not be the full joy that God promises, but we have to believe