Explore
Compare
Life
God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived. From this single idea he built the most famous proof of God's existence.
He reconciled Aristotle with Christianity and wrote the most systematic theology ever attempted. Then he stopped, saying all he had written was straw.
Connection
Anselm the argument refused Thomas Aquinas — Aquinas rejected Anselm's proof on the ground that we do not have the kind of grasp of God's essence the argument requires, and built his own case from effects in the world instead.
Ideas
Words
“I do not seek to understand so that I may believe, but I believe so that I may understand.”
“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”
“The things that we love tell us what we are.”
Key Moments
1033 CE
Born in Aosta
c. 1078 CE
The Ontological Argument
1093 CE
Becomes Archbishop of Canterbury
1109 CE
Death at Canterbury
1245 CE
Studies in Paris and Cologne
1265 CE
Writes the Summa Theologica
December 1273 CE
The Mystical Experience
1274 CE
Dies on the Road
Works
Proslogion
Summa Theologica