Almighty God, who didst raise up thy servant Anselm to teach the Church of his day to understand its faith in thine eternal Being, perfect justice, and saving mercy: Provide thy Church in every age with devout and learned scholars and teachers, that we may be able to give a reason for the hope that is in us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Lovely Collect. We need this Saint’s kind of thinking desperately. Its quality, love, and tone is all but absent in our polarized, over-heated and increasingly reductionistic Church today.
Amen, Albany+ (#1). Anselm was probably the most brilliant and influential theologian ever to sit on the ancient episcopal throne in Canterbury cathedral.
But as great as his classic book [b]Cur Deus Homo[/b] was, or as profound as his philosophical argument for the existence of God may be, his true greatness (like that of the even greater St. Augustine of Hippo) is perhaps most evident in his eloquent, heart-felt prayers, many of which have come down to us.
Kendall, thanks for posting a reminder that this is Anselm’s Day, and encouraging us thereby to thank God for the life and witness of this great saint as well as Doctor of the Church. He has indeed taught us all that [i]”faith seeks understanding.”[/i] In a skeptical Information Age, we may be particularly tempted to try to reverse the biblical order, but faith always precedes understanding, even if it naturally leads us to seek to understand what we believe and know why. [b]Credo ut intelligam[/b], as Anselm rightly said. “I believe in order that I may understand.”
David Handy+