Publication link: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004716308_006
This publication arose out of a need for the different areas of Anselm studies, across theology, philosophy, history and manuscript work, to communicate with each other much more than is currently the norm. By placing the Proslogion in the light of Boethian logical texts known since Becker (1885) to have been housed at Bec, the paper shows through an analysis of Anselm’s most famous chapters from the Proslogion exactly how the text should be understood as an example of fides quaerens intellectum, faith seeking understanding. This in turn helps us to understand exactly what these terms, faith and reason, mean in Anselm without presupposing either the tension or the separation between them that colors their present semantics.
Abstract:
How should the phrase ‘fides quaerens intellectum’ be understood as a characterization of Anselm’s Proslogion? I argue that ‘fides’ and ‘intellectum’ should be understood not in accordance with the standard meanings we assign to ‘faith’ and ‘understanding’ today, but in accordance with their meaning in works used to teach grammar and dialectic at Bec in and around Anselm’s lifetime. I begin by making the structures behind the usual understanding of ‘faith’ and ‘understanding’ explicit. From here, I detail the works of the Trivium used at Bec according to a 12th century library list, and provide justification for thinking these same works were used slightly earlier, in Anselm’s time. Next, I show how the terms fides and intellectus functioned in these works. Finally, I show how these considerations illuminate Anselm’s Proslogion and the exchange with Gaunilo.
Jacob Archambault 