Book Analysis of 'Anselm'

Christian faith lies between the two extremes of fideism and rationalism, that is, between faith with no reason and reason with no faith. Scripture, the main source of Christian tradition, provides us with information about God and what it means to be Christian. An analysis of works and arguments by early church fathers offers tools to engage scripture, including levels of belief and defining faith in the context of society and moderation. Specifically, Augustine and McCabe present arguments concerning faith in the validity of scripture and proofs that a belief in Christianity is reasonable and true. Therefore, a valid assertion can be made that reason plays an important and necessary role in Christian faith.

Anselm goes on to justify his assumption by using the analogy of a painter. In short, when a painter first conceives of what it is he wants to accomplish, he has it in his understanding but does not yet understand it to exist. He doesn’t understand it to exist because he has yet to construct his painting. His point in general is that there is a difference between saying that something exists in my mind and saying that I believe that something exists. Anselm goes on to introduce another assumption that could be considered a new version of the argument. He tries to show that God cannot possibly exist in the understanding alone by contrasting existing in the understand with existing in reality.

Faith can play a key role in how people reason with others. Faith and reason tend to be very close to each other. "The Bible itself tells us what faith is. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Dr. Jason Lisle, anseringgenisis.org) In order to reason about anything we must have faith that there are laws of logic which correctly prescribe the correct chain of reasoning. Since laws of logic cannot be observed with the senses, our confidence in them is a type of

Anselm believes that this combination is contradictory and that, surely, anyone who understands who God is purported to be can also be convinced that God does exist in fact exist. From the fool’s perspective, God exists in his understanding (a) but not in reality (b). This, then, is the crux of Anselm’s argument: to prove to the fool that God cannot possibly exist in the understanding realm alone. Anselm’s argument seems to follow this course:

Kierkegaard believes that true faith can only be attained through a double movement of giving up rationality or logic, while at the same time believing one can understand logically. In “Fear and Trembling” Kierkegaard relates true faith to the Knight of infinite resignation and the Knight of faith; in this paper, I will examine this claim and show why Kierkegaard’s analogy is an excellent metaphor for the double movement which is required in one’s quest to attain faith and why.

Fideism is somewhat correct in stating that God is largely unknowable and that true faith results from a deep appreciation of who God is, not from mathematical equations or clinical reasoning.

But this is different from declaring my faith in God--declaring my deliberate acceptance of God; which is something with which I can struggle. One's beliefs can be held immune from question in a way that their active, deliberative faith cannot be.

In the first place I will point out St. Anselm’s argument, and his emphases on understanding, thoughts, and the heart. St. Anselm lived in a time when the church was controlled by tyrannical kings, so much of his time was spent in research and analyzing his theories’ To Anselm, God was the greatest being, and if God was imagined he would be even greater than that. In other words, God is unimaginable, and if we could imagine God, then we still wouldn’t understand what God is. This statement proposed by Anselm that, “Lord, you who grant understanding to faith,” places the importance of knowledge in order to know God, and it’s God who gives us this knowledge (Louis, Michael and Robert 139). For Example those who have a thought of God’s existence,

Secondly, St. Anselm uses the understanding of God as the reason for becoming more faithful, so the knowledge of God gives people more proof of his existence. In the same way, St. Anselm uses the analogy of the fool denying the existence of God, and the fact that he doesn’t have the capacity to understand God. I have gone down a similar path of sin and ignorance, and I learned that God will give us free reign on our wants, but sooner or later you will hit bottom. Then you face a choice. Either learn from your mistakes and seek God, or follow the previous path and end up there again. In like manner, once you open yourself up to God, other opportunities come around that offers you a better understanding of God. How can knowledge give someone

Chapter 2 discusses faith as visualization of, and belief in attainment of desire. It goes on to discuss faith as another word for "Absolute Confidence." When a person has faith in his beliefs then one can say that half of the battle to acquire success is won. Therefore, when faith is combined with the vibration of thought then the subconscious mind picks up the vibration, translates it into spiritual equivalent, and transmits it to infinite intelligence. Knowing how to develop faith is a method by which it does not already exist is very difficult to describe. Faith is a state of mind, which may be developed at, will after the thirteen principles, which can be mastered in this book.

Augustine (1997) states that, “My faith, Lord, shall call on Thee, which Thou hast given me, wherewith Thou hast inspired me, through the Incarnation of Thy Son, through the ministry of the Preacher.” This quote shows that the faith in which Augustine has is based solely on God having given it to him. Also, in book one, Augustine states, “but how shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe without a preacher?” Augustine brings up an interesting point about how can a person call upon God when that person has never believed in him or does not have someone to guide them to God. This reinforces the idea that when faced with a life altering experiences, we as humans search for something bigger to believe in. We all want to believe there is something after life. Which has caused many people to turn toward having faith when there is nothing else to turn to.

Augustine (1997) states that, “My faith, Lord, shall call on Thee, which Thou hast given me, wherewith Thou hast inspired me, through the Incarnation of Thy Son, through the ministry of the Preacher.” This quote shows that the faith in which Augustine has is based solely on God having given it to him. Also, in book one, Augustine states, “but how shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe without a preacher?” Augustine brings up an interesting point about how can a person call upon God when that person has never believed in him or does not have someone to guide them to God. This reinforces the idea that when faced with a life altering experiences, we as humans search for something bigger to believe in. We all want to believe there is something after life. Which has caused people to turn toward having faith when there is nothing else to turn to.

What Anselm tries to show next is that in this case, having an idea in the understanding requires one to admit that the thing exists in reality as well. For suppose that God exists only in the understanding. Then we can conceive of a greater being: one who exists in reality as well. Moreover, that would mean that this God who exists only in the understanding is not the greatest conceivable being. (Cottingham, 1996: 246)

The need of the people to believe is ancestral and with structure. Any human being cannot live without belief in something, no matter how it is called. Exist a multiplicity of names for belief: God, Science, Nature, faith, religions, myths and even atheism. Every belief is based on the experiences of each person, as well the environment in which we live, that is, our values, our culture, education, religion and also the society in which we live has a great influence on our way of seeing things and of interpreting them. Personally, for me it is very easy to say that we are body and soul and our soul is united to God in some way, where God is helping us achieve the perfection of our soul. Because my beliefs are based on my experiences, in the way I live my life, maybe even those book that I have read over time. Also, I can say that my beliefs are by nature, because maybe God gives us a little insight about our connection with him at the moment to birth, leaving us with the need to get closer to him with the pass of the time. Teresa of Avila on The four stages of the prayers says: “Here the soul begins to recollect itself and come to touch on the supernatural, to which it could never attain by its own efforts (p.113)”, this means that we could not know that there is a higher power for ourselves, which is why we need some help from God. Sometimes we come to doubt the existence of God because we went through difficult times and we reject the possibility that our soul can enjoy

Many people may believe that faith is not rational and moreover not a concrete source of knowledge, however others defend their positions while stating the exact opposite, that faith is the only real way to know. But what statement ultimately prevails?