THE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH IN ANSELM OF CANTERBURY

Abstract

This paper shows the convergence of faith and reason in the doctrine of Anselm of Canterbury, or rather, the intelligence of faith as a human effort to understand, albeit partially, what faith says about God. In Anselm´s doctrine, spirituality and faith are not distinct things. In fact, faith is the attitude that opens the door of theological knowledge that develops through reason. As a Benedictine monk, Anselm acknowledges and lives fully the return of oneself, understood as introspection: one´s recollection in the silent seeking of God. The Proslogion (1078) is thus a meditation on the being of God whose reflexive journey seeks ‘reasons’ for that which is initially accepted by ‘faith’. The author will show that the journey of the intelligence of faith is the result of (1) the monk´s monastic spirituality (2) of which the Proslogion is its main manifestation.