Written for his brother Benedictine monks around 1077, Anselm's
Proslogion is perhaps the best-known partially-read book of the
Middle Ages. Many readers are familiar only with Anselm's
well-known argument for God's existence in Chapters 2-4, which is
often called the "ontological argument," a misleading appellation
coined centuries later by Immanuel Kant. In this argument Anselm
begins with the thought of "something than which nothing greater is
able to be thought," and subsequently he leads the reader to see
that such a reality necessarily exists and cannot be thought not to
be. This argument - which is, to be sure, crucial to the work
constitutes - but a small portion of the whole. Preceding it is a
profound but oft-overlooked opening chapter in which Anselm
contemplates his all-too-human condition and disposes the reader to
receive aptly his argument for God's existence in the next three
chapters. And following this argument are 20 chapters in which
Anselm artfully unfolds the depth and breadth of God's true
existence as that than which nothing greater is able to be thought,
showing God to be (among other things) able-to-sense, pity-hearted,
just, good, and uncircumscribed. Indeed, if the reader is willing
to give himself over to the work as whole, he will be compelled,
under Anselm's deft guidance, to "endeavor to straighten up his
mind toward contemplating God," which is how Anselm describes his
own role in the work in his prefatory remarks. This edition
provides a faithful yet readable English rendering of the whole
Proslogion, the objections raised to Anselm's argument by his
contemporary Gaunilo, and Anselm's replies to those objections.
(After responding to Gaunilo, Anselm himself requested that these
objections and replies be included in subsequent editions of the
Proslogion.) This edition also includes an introduction that
contextualizes the Proslogion within the monastic, pre-Scholastic
age in which it first made its appearance. In addition, by means of
notes and commentary, this edition articulates how to contextualize
Anselm's famous argument in the Proslogion as a whole and in light
of his replies to Gaunilo, how to appreciate the artistry whereby
Anselm knit the Proslogion together into a coherent and concise
unity, and how the work may be taught effectively to interested
students. These features set this affordable English edition of the
Proslogion apart from those currently available, which too often
fail to capture accurately the beauty of Anselm's prose, which
often treat the work through the lens of either later Scholasticism
or contemporary analytic philosophy of religion, and which take
little note of the craftsmanship whereby Anselm constructed this
masterfully integrated work that is remembered too often for too
few of its 24 chapters. Matthew Walz has taught in the
interdisciplinary program at Thomas Aquinas College in California,
and since 2008 he has been a professor in the Philosophy Department
of the University of Dallas.
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