Proslogion
- Language:
- English
- Translation:
- Sidney Norton Deane
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~87,800 words · 417 passages
Cite this work
- APAAnselm of Canterbury. (n.d.). Proslogium, Monologium, and Cur Deus Homo (Deane) [Proslogion] (Sidney Norton Deane, Trans.). Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/anselm-of-canterbury/proslogium-monologium-and-cur-deus-homo-deane
- MLAAnselm of Canterbury. Proslogium, Monologium, and Cur Deus Homo (Deane) [Proslogion]. Translated by Sidney Norton Deane. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/anselm-of-canterbury/proslogium-monologium-and-cur-deus-homo-deane.
- ChicagoAnselm of Canterbury. Proslogium, Monologium, and Cur Deus Homo (Deane) [Proslogion]. Translated by Sidney Norton Deane. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/anselm-of-canterbury/proslogium-monologium-and-cur-deus-homo-deane.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
Anselm's three principal writings in one volume: the 'Monologion', the 'Proslogion' and the 'Cur Deus homo'.
Context and history
The 'Monologion' proves the existence of God from the degrees of goodness and of being found in the world, and does so through a long chain of arguments. The 'Proslogion' looks for the single argument that needs nothing from the world, and finds it: that than which nothing greater can be thought cannot exist in the understanding alone, for then something greater could be thought. That proof, which Kant named ontological, has been refuted and revived so often that the list of those who have argued about it is very nearly the history of philosophy. The 'Cur Deus homo' asks why God became man, and answers with the theory of satisfaction: sin incurs a debt which only man owes and only God can pay. The volume also contains the monk Gaunilo's reply to the 'Proslogion' and Anselm's rejoinder, which is where one sees best what he meant.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
How the all- just and supremely just God spares the wicked, and justly pities the wicked. He is better who is good to the righteous and the wicked than he who is good to the righteous alone. Although God is supremely just, the source of his compassion is hidden. God is supremely compassionate, because he is supremely just. He saveth the just, because justice goes with them ; he frees sinners by the authority of justice. God spares the wicked out of justice ; for it is just that God, than whom none is better or more powerful, should be good even to the wicked, and should make the wicked good. If God ought not to pity, he pities unjustly. But this it is impious to suppose. Therefore, God justly pities. ( . But how dost thou spare the wicked, if thou art all just and supremely just? For how, being all just and supremely just, dost thou aught that is not just? Or, what justice is that to give him who merits eternal death everlasting life? How, then, gracious Lord, good to the righteous and the wicked, canst thou save the wicked, if this is not just, and thou dost not aught that is not just? Or, since thy goodness is incomprehensible, is this hidden in the unapproachable light wherein thou dwellest? Truly, in the deepest and most secret parts of thy goodness is hidden the fountain whence the stream of thy compassion flows. For thou art all just and supremely just, yet thou art kind even to the wicked, even because thou art all supremely good. For thou wouldst be less good if thou wert not kind to any wicked being. For, he i who is good, both to the righteous and the wicked, ;f is better than he who is good to the wicked alone; and he who is good to the wicked, both by punishing ? and sparing them, is better than he who is good by j punishing them alone. Therefore, thou art compas-^ sionate, because thou art all supremely good.…