Medieval · 1078

Proslogion

Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109)

Written as a sustained prayer to God, the Proslogion presents the single argument Anselm sought above all others: that God, as the being than which nothing greater can be conceived, must exist not only in the mind but in reality. Completed in 1078 at the Abbey of Bec, it moves from the ontological argument through the divine attributes, and closes with a meditation on the fullness of joy awaiting those who know God. Its opening chapters contain the most famous proof for God's existence in Western philosophy, while its later chapters unfold a devotional theology of the divine nature that draws the intellect toward worship.

43 min total · 27 chapters