Anselm’s Proslogion is short – about 5000-6000 words in English. That’s the length of one fifty-minute sermon. You can probably read the whole thing in one sitting.
Not that you’d want to skim through a small gem like this. It offers rich devotional rewards for those who’ll take the time.
Proslogion is a reflection on God: His existence, attributes, and nature. Anselm’s famous motto “fides quaerens intellectum” (“faith seeking understanding”) is on display throughout the book. He does not think we can know God through unaided human reason. Rather, with a heart of loving faith, we consider the nature of God and use our sanctified reason to understand with reverence.
Consequently, Proslogion is written in the form of a prayer or meditation. This is not a dry, technical, or clinical study of the attributes of God. Anselm worships as he thinks and speculates, and praises what he discovers.
Anselm wrote it in 1077–1078 while he was Prior of the Abbey of Bec in Normandy (modern-day France). It was actually a sequel to an earlier work, Monologium. Anselm went on to become Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093.
In the middle of this devotional theology, Anselm gave us what has become known as the ontological argument for the existence of God. Anselm argues that God is the greatest Being that mind can conceive of. But a merely conceptual, hypothetical being is not as perfect as a being with real existence. Therefore the Perfect Being must exist, to be a Perfect Being.
Anselm probably did not mean to try to create an argument “from pure reason”. He likely was arguing from “faith seeking understanding”. That is, if you begin with God, it is illogical to conceptualise a non-existent Perfect Being. The very idea is incoherent, and the alternative – a Perfect Being with real existence – must be embraced by faith.
Whether or not you’re persuaded by the ontological argument, this gem of devotion, written in 1077-1078, will warm the heart of any earnest seeker of God.