Proslogion / Proslogium

Anselm began asking himself if there exists a consideration that would require nothing
aside from itself to prove (1) that God truly exists and (2) that He is the Supreme Good. Anselm
often fix his mindset to that which suffices this goal. Though there were times that he would
come to a point wherein he is close to finding an answer, there would also be times when he
would feel like he is going nowhere. This is why he wrote different books about this subject to
help the readers better understand the existence of God and their beliefs.

Chapter 1: Arousal of the mind for contemplating God

The first paragraph is about finding God. What are the things that might lead a man to
Him. Who could be the instruments that might help us be acquainted to Him. It is all about
knowing God and being acquainted to him.

The second paragraph is about how our perfectly happy life with God had turned into the
complete opposite. Anselm mentioned how Adam burped in satiety while we sigh in hunger. As
known from the bible, Adam and Eve, the first humans created, ate the forbidden fruit which
made Him angry and banished us from the Garden of Eden, our homeland. We were then
destined to beg, work to have food, and die. Worst of all, we were deprived of the vision of God.
This is the unhappy fate of man.

The third paragraph is about seeking God and wishing for a fruitful journey. How long
would He turn His face against us and when will He show up in front of us. But despite this, may
He still reward us in our every struggle so we may eat after we sigh.

The fourth paragraph is about acknowledging the presence of God. Believing that he
exists so that you can understand your true purpose, measure your truth, and know what your
heart truly believes. As what Anselm mentioned, “I do not seek to understand in order to believe,
I believe in order to understand”.
Chapter 2: God truly [i.e., really] exists

It is said here that everything that we understand is in our understanding, and everything
that is in our understanding can exist also in reality. For example, a painter. Before he paints a
wall, he envisions what he will paint, therefore only his image of the outcome is in his
understanding. But after he paints it, the image now becomes reality, therefore the reality comes
to his understanding. This is also the case about the existence of God. We understand that He is
“something than which nothing greater can be thought” therefore it is in our understanding. So if
it is possible that something greater cannot be thought, then it is also possible that something
greater can be thought. But as to our understanding, the latter is impossible. Therefore, according
to our understanding, something greater cannot be thought, or simply God, exists both in our
understanding and in reality.

Chapter 3: [God] cannot be thought to not exist

According to Anselm, God truly exists that he cannot even be thought to not exist. As
mentioned in the previous chapter, it is to our understanding that God exists both in our
understanding and in reality. The greatest proof of this is man. Man exists, therefore something
that which nothing greater cannot be thought [i.e., God] also exists.

Chapter 4: How the fool said in his heart that which cannot be thought

Everything that comes into your mind is either what you thought or what you understand.
If you understand that God really is something that which nothing greater cannot be thought,
then it would be inconceivable to think of Him as something that does not exist. Only fools that
do not rightly understand this concept say to their hearts that God does not exist. Despite that,
saying something in your heart means that you are thinking. If we are to use the understanding in
the previous chapter, this reason can prove that God does exist.
Chapter 5: God is whatever it is better to be than not to be. Alone existing
through Himself, He makes all other things from nothing.

This just states that God created everything from nothing and is the Supreme Good. It
says that is better to be just than not-just and blessed than not-blessed.

Chapter 6: How God is able to perceive even though He is not something

corporeal

This is about God being a Supreme Spirit that he can perceive things that can only
naturally be perceived through senses, even though He is not something corporeal [i.e., no
physical body]. This just proves how supremely knows all things.

Chapter 7: How He is omnipotent even though He cannot do many things.

Being omnipotent means that you are capable of doing anything. But are we omnipotent
if we cannot make something that happened to not happen or make something true be false.
Anselm questions this and asks if you can do these things, is it an ability or a lack of ability. For
example, you are resting. You are able to rest but resting also mean doing nothing. People use
this to turn their powerlessness into power. From not being able to do anything to being able to
rest. That is why God is omnipotent. There is no one more powerful than him, hence does not
need power that comes from powerlessness.

Chapter 8: How He is merciful and impassible

Being merciful and impassible are two contrasting ides. This is because being impassible
means that you have no heart capable of feeling sorrowful, which is the main point of being
merciful. But God is both merciful and impassible for He feels sorrow and shows mercy towards
the wretched but does not show compassion towards the act of wretchedness.
Chapter 9: How He who is completely and supremely just spares those who are
evil. He is justly merciful to them.

In the first paragraph, Anselm questions why God, despite being just, still do good to
those who are evil. He emphasized how God is so merciful and good to the point of giving mercy
to those who are sinful.

In the second paragraph, Anselm points out how God saves those who are good and free
those who are evil. The former further explains how merciful and just God is by claiming that He
is supremely good because He is supremely just, which makes him truly merciful.

In the third paragraph, Anselm continued to explain his claim. He said that things that are
not done justly should not be done, therefore what should not be done are unjustly. If God does
not give mercy to those who are evil, then He is unjust. That is why Anselm believes that God
truly is justly merciful.

Chapter 10: How He justly punishes and justly spares those who are evil

Despite Anselm’s claim in the last chapter, he insists that punishing those who are evil is
as just as sparing them. For God is the Supreme Good, it is befitting for Him to punish evil
deeds. That is why He justly punishes and spares those who are evil.

Chapter 11: How “all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth,” and yet, “the
Lord is just in all His ways.”

Resuming the previous chapter, Anselm said that it is just to reward someone according
to their merits. If one did good, then good rewards will come and vice versa. Though he
mentioned that he cannot fully comprehend why God save some among those who are similarly
evil because of his supreme goodness and condemn some because of his supreme justice, he still
believes that God is truly able to perceive and is omnipotent, merciful and impassible. Truly
better to be than not to be.
Chapter 12: God is the life by which He lives, and similarly for similar [attributes]

Anselm is trying to say that God is life itself. He is the beginning of everything. The
creator of the man, and the world and it’s attributes. He is the origin of every single thing that we
know of.

Chapter 13: How He alone is unlimited and eternal, although other spirits are
[also] unlimited and eternal

Both God and created spirits are unlimited and eternal because they are not restricted by
time and space. But God is uniquely unlimited and eternal for He is the only one who has no
beginning and no end. He can also exist in different places as a whole whilst created spirits
cannot.

Chapter 14: How and why God is both seen and not seen by those who seek Him

In the first paragraph, Anselm tries to answer his question as to why can he not see God if
he had found Him already. He said that he saw the light and the truth but has not seen God
Himself.

In the second paragraph, he further extended his reasons as to why he cannot see God. He
said that it is surely because of His brilliance. A man’s eyes are too narrow to fully grasp His
vastness and have short vision to completely see His immense brilliance.

Chapter 15: He is greater than can be thought

Summarizing the previous chapters, Anselm said that God is not just
something that which a greater cannot be thought, but also something greater than
what can be thought. And according to the previous chapters, something that
would be greater than God is something that is impossible.
Chapter 16: This is the inaccessible light in which He dwells

Continuing Anselm’s argument in chapter 14, he gave the sun as an example. Light that
comes from the sun helps you see through things but you cannot look at it directly with your bare
eyes. Same goes with the light of God. You are being enlightened by that light yet it is
inaccessible for man for it is too brilliant.

Chapter 17: Harmony, fragrance, succulence, softness, and beauty are present in
God in their own ineffable manner

Anselm said that since he cannot see God, his soul is still in the darkness and dwells in its
own unhappiness. He said that despite having and using his senses, he still cannot see His
beauty. This is because the senses of his soul are impaired by the old-time infirmity of sin.

Chapter 18: There are no parts in God or in the eternity which He is

In the first paragraph, Anselm mentioned how man fell in darkness even before he was
conceived and born surrounded by it. This means that we are sinned even before we were born
into this world. That is why he seeks for God to be able to cleanse that sin and illumine the
darkness surrounding him.

In the second paragraph, Anselm raises that question of “what are you?”, referring to
God. He said that while He is every true good, but these are many and are different from each
other, thus making Anselm raise the said question. But in the end he also answered how it works.
He said that these goods are not part of a whole but is a whole itself. God exists everywhere as a
whole, and His eternity exists always as a whole.

Chapter 19: He is not in place or in time; but all things are in Him
 As mentioned in chapter 13, God is uniquely unlimited and eternal because he is not
restricted by time and space and can also exist in different places as a whole. Using this
understanding, it means that God is also not restricted by the idea of past, present, and future.
God is not in place or time but rather He contains all other things (including place and time).

Chapter 20: He is before and beyond all things – even eternal things

Anselm presents ideas that would prove that God is before and beyond all things
including eternal things. He said that God is before all things because He is already there and
existing before anything did. God is also beyond all things because He does not have an end and
the fact that they would not exist without Him. God also surpasses even eternal things because
right from the beginning, He is already a whole, whereas others does not start as an eternal
things.

Chapter 21: Whether this [eternity] is one aeon or more than one

Anselm said that God’s eternity is one aeon with regards to its indivisible oneness, but is
more than one aeon when it comes to its endless immensity. And as we have understood in the
previous chapter, God is eternal and is a whole, therefore He is free from ay spatial
determination and has neither enter nor half nor any part.

Chapter 22: He alone is what He is and who He is

Wrapping up the previous chapters, something that exists can be thought not to exist,
returns to not being unless it exists through something else (chapters 1-4), has a past which it no
longer is, and has a future which is not yet is. God has neither a past nor a future, but only a
present (chapter 19). He is life and light and wisdom and blessedness and eternity and many such
good things (chapter 16 & 18). These things are not natural or common, but since we are talking
about God, it is possible.
Chapter 23: The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit are equally this [supreme] good.
It is the one necessary [Being], which is every good, complete good, and the
only good

In this chapter, Anselm elaborates the description of the Holy Trinity. He said that these
three figures are not different from each other in terms of supremacy and being good. They are,
altogether, a whole and cannot be different things. The necessary factor is that the Holy Trinity is
every good, one good, complete good, and the only good.

Chapter 24: A conjecture about what kind of good this is and about how great it is

In this chapter, Anselm talks about how great it would be to experience the enjoyable
good of God, the creator. If created things are enjoyable, then life which creates would be more
enjoyable. He also mentioned the created security that we enjoy and compared it to the feeling of
salvation, which creates all security. In short, if there are many great joys in enjoyable things,
how great would it be to be with Him who created all these enjoyable things.

Chapter 25: The kinds and the quantity of goods for those who enjoy this [Good]

In the first paragraph, Anselm encourages the readers to will the will of God. In this way,
all the goods that a man is searching for, may it be of the flesh or not, will be granted. For God is
the supreme good and he is all the good there is. If man submits to the will of God, he shall not
lose good of his own free will, that God, who loves him, shall not rend it away from him against
his will while he is loving him, and that nothing more powerful than God shall separate him from
God against his will.

In the second paragraph, he said that if one loves another as he loves himself, and that
other experiences the same joy as him, then his happiness would be doubled. If a man’s
happiness multiplies as to how many people are experiencing the same type of happiness,
considering that he loves these people as much as he loves himself, then how can man be able to
contain so many other very great joys?
 In the third paragraph, Anselm said that if one rejoices with the good fortune of others
because he loves this other, therefore man is also rejoice in the blessedness that comes from
loving God more than yourself and this other. And since God is worthy of so much love, he shall
love God with all his heart and all his mind, and all his soul, even though this cannot suffice to
fill up the measure of God’s worthiness to be loved.

Chapter 26: Whether this is the full joy which the Lord promises

In the first paragraph, Anselm continued to talk about the joy that we receive upon loving
God. He said this type of joy is a superabundant joy. And when man rejoices in the good, then all
those joy will become that of God’s joy. Though Anselm is not sure as to how much man will
rejoice to enter His joy. For he said that in this life, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor has
there entered into the heart of man how much they will know and love Him in the next life.

In the second paragraph, Anselm talked about the supreme joy, that is in the joy of God.
As mentioned in chapter 24, it is so great to be with Him who created all things. While waiting
for his promise, salvation, to be fulfilled, we should love Him and rejoice in Him so that in turn
we may receive what he promised and make our joy be full, until such time that we enter into the
joy of our Lord, the trine and one God.

Monologion / Monologium
In the foreword to the Monologion, Anselm presents the method of his scientific work
that was suggested to him by his brothers in the order. He expects it to provide a new approach to
theological problems “so that they would not be affirmed by the authority of [Sacred] Scripture,
but that the conclusions of particular analyses may be deduced with the help of arguments that
can be understood by all, so that the necessity of the reasoning may be grasped at once; so that
the lecture upon the whole may be clear and simple to show clearly the clarity of the truth. They
also wanted the lecture not to neglect answers to objects that might arise, even the simplest and
apparently stupid ones.”
 Anselm concludes the first four chapters by summarizing his results: Therefore, there is a
certain nature or substance or essence who through himself is good and great and through
himself is what he is; through whom exists whatever truly is good or great or anything at all; and
who is the supreme good, the supreme great thing, the supreme being or subsistent, that is,
supreme among all existing things. Anselm devotes chapters 5-65 (by far the largest section of
the Monologion) to discussing the divine attributes. He first (in chapters 5-14) discusses God's
relation to his creatures, taking pains to emphasize God's complete independence from his
creatures and their complete dependence on him. Chapter 15-28 examine, discuss, and argue for
particular attributes of God, Anselm explicates and argues for his understanding of God's
simplicity, eternity, omnipresence, and immutability. Chapters 29-48 continue the investigation
of the generation of the “utterance” or Word, the Son, from the Father in the divine economy,
and 49-63 expand this to discussion of the love between the Father and the Son, namely the Holy
Spirit, equally God as the Father and Son. 64-79 discuss the human creature’s grasp and
understanding of God. Anselm concludes by considering the three theological virtues—love
(chapters 68-71), hope (chapter 75), and faith (chapters 76-78)—and by offering some
concluding remarks about God.

That there is something that is the best, the greatest, the highest, of all existing
Chapters
things. There is a Nature which exists through itself, which is the highest of all
1-4
existing things, and through which exists whatever is.

Just as this Nature exists per se and all other things exist through it, so it exists
from itself and all other things exist from it. Before their creation those things
which have been made from nothing were not nothing with respect to their
Chapters
Maker's reason. The Expression of the Supreme Being is the Supreme Being. Just
5-14
as all things were made through the Supreme Being, so they are sustained through
it. It exists in all things and through all things; and all things exist from it, through
it, and in it.

Chapters What can and what cannot be predicated of the Supreme Being substantively. The
15-17 Supreme Being is so simple that whatever things can be predicated of its essence
 are one and the same thing in it. And something can be predicated substantively
of the Supreme Being only with respect to what this Being is

Other attributes of the supreme being - it exists eternally, is present to every other
Chapters
being in every time and place, without itself existing in different times and places
18-28
etc.

Chapters Anselm argues for many propositions of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity,
29-48 using only philosophical arguments, rather than the authority of the bible.

The love of the Supreme Spirit, how the Father and the Son love one another,
Chapters how Love proceeds as a whole from the Father and as a whole from the Son.
49-58 Only the Father is begetter and unbegotten, only the Son is begotten. Only their
Love is neither begotten nor unbegotten. The essence and wisdom of the Father.

The Father and the Son and their Spirit exist equally in one another. No one of
them needs the other for remembering, understanding, or loving. Nevertheless,
Chapters
there are not three fathers, or three sons or three spirits but one father, one son,
59-63
and one spirit common to them. How in the Supreme Spirit there is only one son
and one who has a son.

Chapters
Though this truth is inexplicable, it must be believed
64-65

Through the rational mind one comes nearest to knowing the Supreme Being. The
rational creature was made for loving the Supreme Being. Every human soul is
Chapters
immortal. No soul is unjustly deprived of the Supreme Good. We are to hope for
66-77
and believe in the Supreme Being, and ought to believe equally in the Father, the
Son, and their Spirit—in each distinctly and in all three together

Which faith is alive and which is dead. What three the Supreme Being can in
Chapters
some respect be said to be. The Supreme Being exercises dominion over all
78-79
things and rules all things and is the only God.
The Ontological Argument
Ontological arguments use a priori abstract reasoning to claim that the concept of God
and the ability to speak of God implies that God must exist. When we speak about God, we are
talking about a perfect being; nothing is greater. Since we would be better having a God that
exists rather than a God that does not and we refer to God as a perfect being, we imply that God
exists.

St. Anselm’s conception of God is that the nature of God is a “being than which nothing
greater can be conceived,” in other words, God is a perfect being and it is an imperfection not to
exist. Hence, since God is perfect, he must exist.

Since God is perfect and is the greatest thing we can think of, and things can exist in our
understanding, or they can also exist in reality, furthermore things that exists in reality are better
than things that exist in our understanding. If God exists only in our understanding, he wouldn’t
be the greatest thing that we can think of, because God in reality would be better. Therefore, God
must exist in reality.

Even a fool, when he hears of … a being than which nothing greater can be conceived …
understands what he hears, and what he understands is in his understanding.… And assuredly
that, than which nothing greater can be conceived, cannot exist in the understanding alone. For
suppose it exists in the understanding alone: then it can be conceived to exist in reality; which is
greater.… Therefore, if that, than which nothing greater can be conceived, exists in the
understanding alone, the very being, than which nothing greater can be conceived, is one, than
which a greater can be conceived. But obviously this is impossible. Hence, there is no doubt that
there exists a being, than which nothing greater can be conceived, and it exists both in the
understanding and in reality.

The argument in this difficult passage can accurately be summarized in standard form:

1. It is a conceptual truth (or, so to speak, true by definition) that God is a being than which
none greater can be imagined (that is, the greatest possible being that can be imagined).
2. God exists as an idea in the mind.
3. A being that exists as an idea in the mind and in reality is, other things being equal,
greater than a being that exists only as an idea in the mind.
4. Thus, if God exists only as an idea in the mind, then we can imagine something that is
greater than God (that is, a greatest possible being that does exist).
5. But we cannot imagine something that is greater than God (for it is a contradiction to
suppose that we can imagine a being greater than the greatest possible being that can be
imagined.)
6. Therefore, God exists.

AQUINAS' THE FIVE WAYS (Arguments to prove the existence of

God) 

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS  

•Born in 1225 at Roccasecca, midway of Rome and Naples and died in 1274. (McInerny &
O’Callaghan, 2014) 
•Canonized in 1323, then later proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope St. Pius V in 1567. 
SUMMA THEOLOGIAE - also called Summa Theologica was one of the best-known
works of Aquinas. Written around 1265-1273 that contains the philosophy of Aristotle and
the theological dicta of the Catholic Church. 

The first way: Argument from Motion

If there is a movement, there is a "mover" that started the motion-- in this case, God. 

The second way: Argument from Causation - existence of the

uncaused "causer". Concluding that there is a cause in a visible effect whether it is invisible. 

Infinite Regress (This is logically impossible) 

•a sequence of reasoning or justification which can never come to an end. (Oxford Languages
and Google - English | Oxford Languages, 2020) 

The third way Argument from Possibility and Necessity  

Contingent Being – one that exists but it could not have existed. 
Necessary Being – it has and will always exist (God) 

The fourth way Argument from Gradation - argues that we have a "model" for our

gradation. 

The fifth way Argument from Governance - uses analogy that if something like the

world was made so elegantly, there must be a "maker". 

References: 
McInerny, R., & O’Callaghan, J. (2014). Saint Thomas Aquinas (Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy). Stanford.Edu. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas/#VitBre  
Thomas Aquinas | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
(2012). Utm.Edu. https://iep.utm.edu/aquinas/ 
‌Summa theologiae | work by Saint Thomas Aquinas | Britannica. (2020).
In Encyclopædia  Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Summa-theologiae 
Pawl T. (2012). The Five Ways. University of St. Thomas, Minnesota. pawl8866@stthomas.edu