The Saint Anselm Blog

Recent Publications - October 2011

2011-10-29T08:55:00.003+01:00

Articles

C.I. Barrett, 'A Careful Reading of St. Anselm’s Ontological Argument' in Philosophy and Theology, 23 (2011) ??-??

Recent Publications - September 2011

2011-09-17T09:15:00.004+01:00

Articles

C. Heathwood, 'The relevance of Kant's objection to Anselm's ontological argument' in Religious Studies, 47 (2011) 345-357.
Ian Logan comments: Oops! This paper shifts from (i) Kant's objection undermines Anselm's argument (btw Kant had not read Anselm), to (ii) a plausible reading of Kant's objection undermines Anselm's argument to (iii) a plausible reading of Kant's objection is relevant to at least one popular and defensible reading of Anselm's argument. In fact, as a reading of Anselm it is not defensible (whether or not it is a defensible ontological argument is a different matter). From the very beginning of this article, the author goes astray - misled as are many non-Latinists by the appalling translation of S.N. Deane, so beloved of American philosophers of religion. The motto is 'Read Anselm before you write about him!' Another suggestion is that before you start taking too seriously the notion that 'existence is not a predicate' (or a first order concept/predicate, etc.) you really ought to read Colin McGinn's Logical Properties, in particular the chapter on 'Existence'.

Recent Publications - August 2011 - Updated

2011-08-20T08:11:00.002+01:00

Articles

Y. Nagasawa, 'Anselmian Theism' in Philosophy Compass, 6 (2011) 564-571.
Ian Logan comments: In this defense of what Nagasawa refers to as 'Anselmian Theism', he writes: "Anselm deﬁnes God as ‘something than which no greater can be thought (conceived)’." Well, Anselm didn't think he had defined God. For the dialectical tradition in which Anselm operated, if God could be defined, He would be the differentiated species of a genus and therefore would not be God. The key feature of Anselmian theism (if there were such a thing) would be the notion that God is greater than whatever we can think about Him. In fact, He must be greater than can be thought, if He is that than which a greater cannot be thought, since otherwise we could think of something greater than Him, i.e. something that is so great it is greater than can be thought. If we are going to discuss Anselm then we need to take account of such points. Otherwise, I'm not sure what the term 'Anselmian' should be taken to mean.

Recent Publications - August 2011

2011-08-06T06:16:00.003+01:00

Articles

T.A. Heslop, 'St Anselm, Church Reform, and the Politics of Art' in Anglo-Norman Studies, 33 (2011) 103-126.
On 'the politically charged glazing scheme that Archbishop Anselm installed at Canterbury cathedral'.

'AC Grayling's private university is odious'

2011-07-10T07:06:00.002+01:00

An excellent polemic against Grayling's private 'atheist seminary' by Terry Eagleton : AC Grayling's private university is odious.

Recent Publications - June 2011

2011-06-07T07:47:00.004+01:00

Articles

J. Whitman, 'The Other Side of Omnipotence: Anselm on the Dialectics of Divine Power' in Harvard Theological Review, 104 (2011) 129-146.

Reviews

P. Madigan, 'Review of Benedicta Ward, Anselm of Canterbury: his Life and Legacy' in Heythrop Journal, 52 (2011) 473.

Will there be a place for Anselm...

2011-06-05T13:32:00.003+01:00

... in the curriculum of London's new atheist seminary? If so, let's hope it is free of the idiotic treatment of Anselm by one of the seminary's founders, R. Dawkins. See my previous post: The most stupid account of Anselm's argument ever?

Just as I was beginning to think...

2011-05-31T06:47:00.003+01:00

... that the internet was a valuable tool for spreading philosophical understanding, I came across this drivel What do you think of this argument? on 'Yahoo Answers'. It's enough to make a rational man weep.

Recent Publications - May 2011 - Updated

2011-05-16T07:25:00.006+01:00

Articles

Bruce Marshall, 'Anselm, Debt, and the Cross' in Nova et Vetera (English edition), 9 (2011) 163-181.

Reviews

Jonathan Sanford, 'Review of Ian Logan, Reading Anselm's Proslogion: The History of Anselm's Argument and its Significance Today' in International Philosophical Quarterly, 51 (2011) 113-115.

Gareth Matthews 1929-2011

2011-04-29T09:01:00.006+01:00

The philosopher, Gareth Matthews, died in Boston, USA, on 17 April. An obituary can be found here. May he rest in peace.

He wrote on Anselm over many years. Here are some articles that I am aware of.

'On conceivability in Anselm and Malcolm' in Philosophical Review, 70 (1961) 110-111

'Aquinas on Saying That God Doesn't Exist' in The Monist, 47 (1962/3) 472-477.
Ian Logan comments: Matthews presents a brief but interesting critique of Aquinas on Anselm and an equally brief and interesting critique of Anselm's argument as a proof that there is a contradiction involved in saying that God does not exist. Matthews argues that since there is no contradiction in saying 'For any given thing, a greater thing can always be conceived' and 'There is nothing than which a greater cannot be conceived', Anselm's argument, as proof of such a contradiction, fails. The problem with Matthews' objection is that it overlooks the uniqueness of 'that than which a greater cannot be thought', which for Anselm is so great that 'definitionally' nothing greater than it can be thought. Thus, talk about something than which a greater can be thought is talk about something other than 'that than which a greater cannot be thought'. The contradiction occurs when the atheist talks not about something else (as they do in the examples Matthews cites) but when they talk about that 'than which a greater cannot be thought', i.e. God.

'Anselm, Augustine and Platonism' in B. Davies & B. Leftow, eds, The Cambridge Companion to Anselm, CUP, Cambridge 2004, 61-83.

'Anselm's argument reconsidered' in The Review of Metaphysics 64 (2010) 31–54 (with L.R. Baker).

Recently Matthews and Baker were engaged in an exchange with Graham Oppy.

Matthew and Baker, 'The ontological argument simplified' in Analysis, 70 (2010) 210-212.

Oppy, 'Objection to a simplified ontological argument' in Analysis, 71 (2011) 105-106

Matthews and Baker, 'Reply to Oppy's fool' in Analysis, 71 (2011) 303-303.

Oppy, 'On behalf of the fool' in Analysis, 71 (2011) 304-306.

Recent Publications - March 2011

2011-03-30T21:03:00.001+01:00

Articles

Special issue of International Journal for Philosophy of Religion with four papers relating to Anselm from the conference entitled ‘The Concept of God and the Cognitive Science of Religion’, held at the University of Birmingham, UK, 14-16 June 2009.

N. Kendrick, 'The non-Christian influence on Anselm's Proslogion argument' in International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 69 (2011) 73-89.

B. Leftow, 'Why perfect being theology?' in International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 69 (2011) 103-118.

G. Oppy, 'Perfection, near-perfection, maximality, and Anselmian Theism' in International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 69 (2011) 119-138.

E. Wierenga, 'Augustinian perfect being theology and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob' in International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 69 (2011) 139-151.

Recent Publications - February 2011 - Updated

2011-02-19T07:48:00.007Z

Books

L. Mackey, Faith in Order: Natural Theology in the Augustinian Tradition, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto 2011.
Publisher's blurb: From its first statement by Augustine, through its confirmation by Anselm and its spiritualization by Bonaventure, to its final and fundamental formulation by Duns Scotus, the Augustinian idea of order is clearly discernible in the characteristic proofs of God’s existence offered by these philosopher-theologians. Not without reason, since for all of them the being of God is the guarantor – origin, measure, and end – of the order of the cosmos. It is, moreover, the distinctive manner in which each of them defines the problem of theistic proof that reveals most perspicuously the way he conceives the idea of order that informs it. Their several proofs are their individual ways of appropriating their common heritage.
In this posthumous work, Louis Mackey sketches the adventures of the idea of order in the Augustinian tradition. Beginning with the proposition that not all who prove the existence of God are proving the same thing, nor do they understand the proof in the same way, Mackey shows how, even within the bounds of the Augustinian tradition, modes of proof and conceptions of what is to be proven can vary when questioned from within, as by Anselm’s fool, or challenged from without by the philosophy of Aristotle.

Articles

C.H. Conn, 'Anselmian Spacetime: Omnipresence and the Created Order' in Heythrop Journal, 52 (2011) 260-270.
Abstract: For Anselm, the attribute of omnipresence is not merely concerned with where God exists, but with where and when God exists. His account of this attribute thus precipitates a discourse on the nature of space and time: how they are related to God, to one another, and to the rest of the created order. In the course of this analysis Anselm articulates a number of positions which are generally thought to be the sole possession of modernity. In Part One of what follows I argue, first, that Anselm provides us with an analysis of objects which have both spatial and temporal parts, and second, that he provides us with a clear distinction between those objects which persist by enduring through time in their entirety and those which persist by being temporally extended. In Part Two I argue that Anselm's analysis of omnipresence is consciously informed by a conception of spacetime, according to which space and time form a single, four-dimensional manifold in which objects both persist and move.

Recent Publications - January 2011

2011-01-11T09:00:00.003Z

Articles

L. Schumacher, 'The lost legacy of Anselm's argument: re-thinking the purpose of proofs for the existence of God' in Modern Theology, 27 (2011) 87-101.
Ian Logan comments: Schumacher stresses Anselm's Augustinianism leading her to depart somewhat from Anselm's text, which is why, I suspect, she has to say that 'Anselm implicitly concludes' in introducing a key step in her argument. She should perhaps have addressed what Anselm says in Ep. 136 to Fulk. He argues that rational arguments should be used against the impious so that they can see how irrational their rejection is, whilst Christians should accept on faith and progress to understanding. Schumacher's account addresses the Christian element of Anselm's Proslogion argument, but ignores the role of the unbeliever. The fool of the Proslogion is an unbeliever, and that is not irrelevant to what Anselm is doing in his argument.

Reviews

T.J. Holopainen, 'Review of Ian Logan, Reading Anselm's Proslogion: The History of Anselm's Argument and its Significance Today' in Heythrop Journal, 52 (2011) 129-130.
Ian Logan comments: Holopainen too fails to understand the significance of the role of the unbeliever in the Proslogion.

Recent Publications - December 2010

2010-12-06T09:05:00.005Z

Articles

G.E.M. Gasper, 'Envy, Jealousy, and the Boundaries of Orthodoxy: Anselm of Canterbury and the Genesis of the Proslogion' in Viator-UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies- 41 (2010) 45-68.

Reviews

B. Goebel, 'Review of Hansjurgen Verweyen, Anselm von Canterbury 1033-1109. Denker, Beter, Erzbischof' in Philosophisches Jahrbuch, 117 (2010) 351-356.

Details of Anselm conference - 'Anselm and a new Europe'

2010-11-16T07:46:00.003Z

Here is the progamme for the Anselm Conference to be held at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome from 25-27 November 2010.

Recent Publications - October 2010 - Updated

2010-10-12T07:46:00.005+01:00

Articles

Sigurd Baark, 'Anselm: Platonism, language and truth in Proslogion' [sic], Scottish Journal of Theology, 63 (2010) 379-397.
Caveat lector: Appears unaware of the dialectical origins of the argument of the Proslogion.

Reviews

Matthew Barrett, 'Review of Ian Logan, Reading Anselm's Proslogion: The History of Anselm's Argument and its Significance Today, Ashgate 2009' in Journal of Theological Studies, 2010 (61) 826-829.

Richard Cross, 'Review of Sandra Visser and Thomas Williams, Anselm (Great Medieval Thinkers series), Oxford University Press 2009' in Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 61 (2010) 820-821.

Anthony J. Lisska,'Review of Ian Logan, Reading Anselm's Proslogion: The History of Anselm's Argument and its Significance Today, Ashgate 2009' in Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 61 (2010) 821-822.

M. Staunton, 'Review of Benedicta Ward, Anselm of Canterbury: His Life and Legacy, SPCK 2009' in Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 61 (2010) 820-820.

Anselm and the 'new' Europe

2010-09-21T14:01:00.002+01:00

"Anselm's participation in the construction process of the ‘new’ Europe" - a conference organised by the Faculty of Ecclesiastical History and Cultural Patrimony at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome - will take place from the 25th to the 27th November 2010.

For further details contact:

Segreteria Organizzativa Congresso Sant'Anselmo (Lucchesi 215)
Pontificia Università Gregoriana
Facoltà di Storia e Beni Culturali della Chiesa
Piazza della Pilotta 4
00186 Roma - Italy

Recent Publications - September 2010 - Updated

2010-09-15T06:35:00.006+01:00

Articles

M.J.S. Bruno, 'The Investiture Contest in Norman England: A Struggle Between St. Anselm of Canterbury and The Norman Kings: Part II' in American Benedictine Review, 61 (2010) 307-324.

Bernd Goebel, 'Anselm's Elusive Argument: Ian Logan Reading the Proslogion' in Saint Anselm Journal, 7:1 (Fall 2009).
Caveat lector: pages in the Saint Anselm Journal no longer run consecutively - each article begins at page 1.

Thomas Gwozdz, 'Anselm's Theory of Freedom' in Saint Anselm Journal, 7:1 (Fall 2009).
Caveat lector: pages in the Saint Anselm Journal no longer run consecutively - each article begins at page 1.

Ian Logan, 'Saint Anselm' in The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 September 2010.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=120]
Requires a subscription.

Recent Publications - August 2010 - Updated

2010-08-26T14:33:00.002+01:00

Articles

Chris Heathwood, 'The relevance of Kant's objection to Anselm's ontological argument' in Religious Studies, forthcoming.
Caveat lector: this paper addresses Plantinga's argument, not Anselm's.

Reviews

David Hogg, 'Review of Benedicta Ward, Anselm of Canterbury: His Life and Legacy, SPCK 2009' in Speculum, 85 (2010) 750-751.

Ian Logan, 'Review of Sandra Visser and Thomas Williams, Anselm (Great Medieval Thinkers series), Oxford University Press 2009' in New Blackfriars, 91 (2010) 616-618.

Siobhan Nash-Marshall, 'Review of Sandra Visser and Thomas Williams, Anselm (Great Medieval Thinkers series), Oxford University Press 2009' in Speculum, 85 (2010) 748.
Identifies a (serious) problem with the kind of approach taken by Visser and Williams.

Sandra Visser, 'Review of Ian Logan, Reading Anselm's Proslogion: The History of Anselm's Argument and its Significance Today, Ashgate 2009' in Speculum, 85 (2010) 705-706.
I intend to respond to the reviews of my book in this blog when they have all come out. (I'm aware of two yet to be be published.)

Recent Publications - July 2010

2010-07-29T06:32:00.003+01:00

Articles

Sara L. Uckelman, 'The Ontological Argument and Russell's Antinomy' in Logic and Logical Philosophy, 18 (2010) 309-312.

Abstract. In this short note we respond to the claim made by Christopher Viger that Anselm’s so-called ontological argument falls prey to Russell’s paradox. We show that Viger’s argument is based on a ﬂawed premise and hence does not in fact demonstrate what he claims it demonstrates.

Recent Publications - June 2010 - Updated

2010-06-24T07:26:00.005+01:00

Articles

M.J.S. Bruno, 'The Investiture Contest in Norman England: A Struggle Between St. Anselm of Canterbury and The Norman Kings: Part I' in American Benedictine Review, 61 (2010) 119-137.

J.R. Fortin, 'Saint Anselm and the Four Last Things' in American Benedictine Review, 61 (2010) 183-203.

P.D. Jones, 'Barth and Anselm: God, Christ and the Atonement' in International Journal of Systematic Theology, 12 (2010) 257-282.

P. Knauer, 'Anselm's Geschöpflichkeitsbeweis' in Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie, 132 (2010) 165-181.

Reviews

L. Schumacher, Review of I. Logan, Reading Anselm's Proslogion: The History of Anselm's Argument and Its Significance Today in Modern Theology, 26 (2010) 471-473.

Saint Anselm Journal - change

2010-06-12T07:30:00.002+01:00

The Saint Anselm Journal has not disappeared, it has changed its URL as the website appears to have been redeveloped.

You can now find it at:

http://www.anselm.edu/Institutes-Centers-and-the-Arts/Institute-for-Saint-Anselm-Studies/Saint-Anselm-Journal.htm

Additional Publications - May - 2010

2010-05-29T08:04:00.009+01:00

The first number of the on-line journal, Philosophical Readings, is dedicated to 'Anselm of Aosta'. (The Aosta designation indicates the journal's Italian origins.) Thanks to Sara Uckelman for letting me know about this.

Articles

P. Gilbert, 'Le dialogue interreligieux chez Anselme' in Philosophical Readings, 1 (2009) 47-74.

D. Porello, 'La necessità di un’isola' in Philosophical Readings, 1 (2009) 5-45.

L. Vettorello, 'Riflessioni sulla prova anselmiana' in Philosophical Readings, 1 (2009) 75-84.

Reviews

F. Siri, Review of Eadmero e Giovanni di Salisbury, Vite di Anselmo di Aosta, ed. by I. Biffi et al., Jaca Book, Milano 2009 and Anselmo d’Aosta, Opere filosofiche, ed. by S. Vanni Rovighi, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2008 in Philosophical Readings, 1 (2009) 85-91.

Recent Publications - May 2010 - Updated

2010-05-03T21:36:00.008+01:00

Articles

G. Landini, 'Russell and the Ontological Argument' in Russell: the Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies, 29 (2009-10) 101-128.

R.A. Sharpe, 'Early Manuscripts of Anselm: A discussion with five manuscripts' in Gazette du livre medieval, 54 (Printemps 2009) 48-52.

A. Vanderjagt, 'Obedience Simple and True: Anselm of Canterbury on How to Defeat the Devil' in W. Otten, A. Vanderjagt & H. de Vries, How the West Was Won: Essays on Literary Imagination, the Canon and the Christian Middle Ages (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 188), Leiden 2010, pp. 393-408.

Reviews

K. Shuve, Review of B. Ward, Anselm of Canterbury: His Life and Legacy in The Expository Times, 121 (2010) 420.

K.M. Staley, Review of K. Rogers, Anselm on Freedom in International Philosophical Quarterly, 50 (2010) 136-138.

Bertrand Russell Interviews St. Anselm of Canterbury

2010-05-03T21:26:00.002+01:00

Entertaining account of Anselm's argument - see if you can disaggregate the errors from the insights!