This study provides a reappraisal of the eleventh-century controversy over the value of logic in theology on the basis of close exegesis of the central texts by Peter Damian, Lanfranc of Bec, Berengar of Tours and Anselm of Canterbury.

The article aims at elucidating the argumentation in Anselm's Proslogion by relating some aspects of it to the early medieval theory of argument. The focus of the analysis is on the "single argument" (unum argumentum), the discovery of which Anselm announces in the Preface to the Proslogion. Part 1 of the article offers a preliminary description of the single argument by describing the reductio ad absurdum technique based on the notion "that than which a greater cannot be thought". Part 2 (...) discusses the ideas about arguments and argumentation that Boethius presents in Book One of his In Ciceronis Topica. Part 3 draws attention to some early medieval sources (Abelard, Lanfranc, Anselm) that are witness to the importance of the Boethian ideas in Anselm's time. Finally, Part 4 argues that Anselm looked at his single argument in the Boethian framework and that the term "that than which a greater cannot be thought" should be identified as his single argument. (shrink)

In A Historical Study of Anselm's Proslogion, Toivo J. Holopainen offers a new overall interpretation of Anselm's Proslogion by providing a historical explanation for the distinctive combination of argument and devotion that this treatise exhibits. Part 1 clarifies Anselm's outlook on the central arguments in the treatise by offering a careful analysis of the 'single argument', the discovery of which Anselm announces in the preface. Part 2 reassesses the conflicting views about faith and reason in the immediate background of the (...) Proslogion (the Eucharistic controversy, the publication of the Monologion). Part 3 examines the Proslogion from a rhetorical perspective and argues that applying the 'single argument' in a devotional setting constitutes a subtle attempt to affect the audience's ideas about method in theology. (shrink)

In this highly useful book, Eileen Sweeney offers an overall interpretation of Anselm’s thought and output. Her method is to go through Anselm’s treatises and other writings in roughly chronological order, dividing them into seven groups, each to be discussed in its own chapter. In doing so, the author draws attention to material that is often neglected in discussions of Anselm’s thought. This is particularly the case with chapters 1 and 2, in which Anselm’s prayers and letters are discussed, respectively; (...) as for the letters, the author mainly focuses on those containing spiritual guidance. The order of presentation can be supported on chronological grounds, as many of the prayers and some of the letters are among .. (shrink)