c. 1033 – 1109

Anselm of Canterbury

Worth knowing

Born at Aosta in Italy in 1033, he became a monk and then abbot of Bec in Normandy, and archbishop of Canterbury in 1093.
His motto was faith seeking understanding: a believer who uses reason to understand what he already believes.
His Proslogion argues that God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived. When the monk Gaunilo objected, Anselm had the objection copied together with his reply.
His Cur Deus Homo explains why God became man. The debt of sin is one only man owes and only God can pay.

In Scholar’s Dream, Anselm of Canterbury has three books

MonologionAnselm of Canterbury, Monologium (A Soliloquy on the Being of God)RationalityTheology Proper

ProslogionAnselm of Canterbury, Proslogium (Discourse on the Existence of God)RationalityTheology Proper

Cur Deus HomoAnselm of Canterbury, Cur Deus Homo (Why God Became Man)Soteriology

Anselm of Canterbury’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from Anselm of Canterbury that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“And indeed, we believe that thou art a being than which nothing greater can be conceived… But, at any rate, this very fool, when he hears of this being of which I speak… understands what he hears, and what he understands is in his understanding.”
Anselm, Proslogium 2 (trans. Sidney Norton Deane, 1903, public domain). (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move Than Which Nothing Greater

RationalityArgument · power 82 · 90% accurate

In the gameAddressed to the fool of Psalm 14, and it uses his own understanding against him: to deny the idea, he must first hold it. Expensive, and it does not always land.

Learned byProslogion (Lv 1), Cur Deus Homo (Lv 43)

Strong against

×0.5In Behalf of the Foolan argument · why?

It slides off. Getting from the understanding to the world is the very step he is refusing.

“…considering that this book was knit together by the linking of many arguments, I began to ask myself whether there might be found a single argument which would require no other for its proof than itself alone.”
Anselm, Proslogium, preface (trans. Sidney Norton Deane, 1903, public domain) — written about the Monologium, the book he had just finished.public domain

How it works in the game: the move The Linking of Many Arguments

RationalityArgument · power 62 · 100% accurate

In the gameNot one argument but a chain of them, each leaning on the last. It never misses and it never finishes anybody.

Learned byMonologion (Lv 1)

“Therefore to sin is nothing else than not to render to God his due… This is the debt which man and angel owe to God, and no one who pays this debt commits sin.”
Anselm, Cur Deus Homo 1.11 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain). (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move What Is Owed

SoteriologyArgument · power 72 · 100% accurate

In the gameSin defined without a word about feelings or rules: it is a debt not paid. Everything Anselm says about the cross follows from this one sentence.

Learned byCur Deus Homo (Lv 1)

Strong against

×3The Five Common Notionsan argument · why?

Anselm defines sin as failing to give God what we owe him. Herbert’s five notions tell us that we owe it. They cannot tell us how the debt is paid.

“It was a fool against whom the argument of my Proslogium was directed. Seeing, however, that the author of these objections is by no means a fool, and is a Catholic, speaking in behalf of the fool, I think it sufficient that I answer the Catholic.”
Anselm, Apologetic, in Reply to Gaunilon’s Answer in Behalf of the Fool, opening (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Answer the Catholic

EthicsArgument · power 52 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe reply opens by promoting the man who attacked him. He wrote for a fool; a believer answered; so he will answer the believer. Very likely to take the force out of the foe’s Contend.

Learned byProslogion (Lv 36)

Strong against

×2In Behalf of the Foolan argument · why?

He is named correctly before he is answered, and the argument cools by several degrees.

“How art thou compassionate, and, at the same time, passionless?”
Anselm, Proslogium 8 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain).public domain

“But how dost thou spare the wicked, if thou art all just and supremely just? For how, being all just and supremely just, dost thou aught that is not just?”
Anselm, Proslogium 9 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Compassionate and Passionless

Theology ProperArgument · power 70 · 100% accurate

In the gameAnselm turns on his own doctrine and presses where it seems to contradict itself, instead of asserting past the difficulty.

Learned byProslogion (Lv 37)

“You have not as yet estimated the great burden of sin.”
Anselm, Cur Deus Homo 1.21 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain). The popular “weight of sin” is a paraphrase; Deane reads “burden.”public domain

How it works in the game: the move The Burden of Sin

SoteriologyType shift

In the gameBoso says a moment’s honest regret would surely settle it. Anselm tells him he has not yet weighed the thing he is offering to settle. Greatly lowers the foe’s Defend.

Learned byCur Deus Homo (Lv 38)

“Now I promise confidently that if any man shall devise anything existing either in reality or in concept alone (except that than which a greater be conceived) to which he can adapt the sequence of my reasoning, I will discover that thing, and will give him his lost island, not to be lost again.”
Anselm, Apologetic 3 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Take Back the Island

RationalityArgument · power 78 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe parody is accepted and then handed back. Find anything else the argument fits, Anselm says, and I will go and fetch your island myself — because it fits exactly one thing, and that is why the parody fails.

Learned byProslogion (Lv 39)

Strong against

×2.5In Behalf of the Foolan argument · why?

The parody is handed straight back — and it fits nothing else.

“Therefore, O Lord, thou art not only that than which a greater cannot be conceived, but thou art a being greater than can be conceived.”
Anselm, Proslogium 15 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Greater Than Can Be Conceived

Theology ProperArgument · power 76 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe argument turns and goes past its own conclusion: not merely the greatest thing thinkable, but greater than thinking reaches.

Learned byProslogion (Lv 41)

“Therefore none but God can make this satisfaction… But none but a man ought to do this.”
Anselm, Cur Deus Homo 2.6 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain). (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move None but God, None but Man

SoteriologyArgument · power 84 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe whole book arrives here. The debt is owed by man and payable only by God, so it is paid by the one who is both — and there was never a second way to read the arithmetic.

Learned byCur Deus Homo (Lv 46)

Strong against

×4The Five Common Notionsan argument · why?

His fourth article says crimes must be expiated by repentance. Anselm did the arithmetic in 1098: the debt is owed by man and payable by none but God.

Passages you can read in the game

Longer excerpts the Scriptorium holds on screen for a player to sit and read, word for word.

“And indeed, we believe that thou art a being than which nothing greater can be conceived… But, at any rate, this very fool, when he hears of this being of which I speak… understands what he hears, and what he understands is in his understanding.”
Anselm, Proslogium 2 (trans. Sidney Norton Deane, 1903, public domain). (trimmed quote)

from Proslogion

“Therefore, O Lord, thou art not only that than which a greater cannot be conceived, but thou art a being greater than can be conceived.”
Anselm, Proslogium 15 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain).

from Proslogion

“How art thou compassionate, and, at the same time, passionless?”
Anselm, Proslogium 8 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain).

from Proslogion

“But how dost thou spare the wicked, if thou art all just and supremely just? For how, being all just and supremely just, dost thou aught that is not just?”
Anselm, Proslogium 9 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain).

from Proslogion

“Therefore to sin is nothing else than not to render to God his due… This is the debt which man and angel owe to God, and no one who pays this debt commits sin.”
Anselm, Cur Deus Homo 1.11 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain). (trimmed quote)

from Cur Deus Homo

“You have not as yet estimated the great burden of sin.”
Anselm, Cur Deus Homo 1.21 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain). The popular “weight of sin” is a paraphrase; Deane reads “burden.”

from Cur Deus Homo

“Therefore none but God can make this satisfaction… But none but a man ought to do this.”
Anselm, Cur Deus Homo 2.6 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain). (trimmed quote)

from Cur Deus Homo

Words Anselm of Canterbury’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

How it works in the game: the move Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

Learned byMonologion (Lv 11), Proslogion (Lv 37), Cur Deus Homo (Lv 1)

“The very beauty of our own figure especially confesses God to be its artificer: our upright stature, our uplooking countenance, our eyes placed at the top, as it were, for outlook; and all the rest of our senses as if arranged in a citadel.”
Minucius Felix, Octavius 18 (trans. Wallis, ANF 4, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Argument from Design

Natural TheologyArgument · power 76 · 100% accurate

In the gameA made thing argues for its maker. The body stands upright with its senses set high like a garrison; the world goes on being worth looking at long after the workman has gone. Either one is evidence, and neither had to be that way.

Learned byMonologion (Lv 28)

Strong against

×2.5Nein!an argument · why?

Paul did not preach to Athens from the Word alone. He started with their altar and their poets. If Barth is right, Acts 17 should not have been written.

“He who pleads his cause first seems right; until another comes and questions him.”
Proverbs 18:17 (WEB).

How it works in the game: the move Question the Premise

RationalityType shift

In the gameChallenge the foundation of an argument before it can be pressed. Lowers the foe’s Contend.

Learned byMonologion (Lv 30)

Who else was alive

Anselm of Canterbury against everyone else in the game.

A.D. 450A.D. 700A.D. 950A.D. 1200A.D. 1450A.D. 1700A.D. 1950

Boethius Boniface John of Damascus Daniel of Winchester Timothy I Alcuin of York Pope Leo III Eulogius of Córdoba Paul Alvaro of Córdoba Rimbert Humbert of Silva Candida Michael Cerularius Peter III of Antioch Anselm of Canterbury Ari Thorgilsson Ebo and Herbord Thomas Aquinas John Wyclif Lorenzo Valla Girolamo Savonarola Pope Paul III Martin Luther Miles Coverdale William Tyndale Emperor Charles V John Calvin Teresa of Ávila John Jewel The Council of Trent The English exiles at Geneva Hugo Grotius René Descartes John Owen Blaise Pascal John Bunyan Louis XIV of France Pierre Bayle Joseph Butler Jonathan Edwards Thomas Reid George Campbell William Paley John Henry Newman J. C. Ryle Friedrich Nietzsche James Orr B. B. Warfield Herman Bavinck W. R. Sorley James Denney J. Gresham Machen

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate51 authors sit outside this window