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Anselm

Anselm

by Visser, Sandra
No customer reviews yet ISBN 9780195309386 Oxford University Press

Sandra Visser and Thomas Williams offer a brief, accessible introduction to the life and thought of Saint Anselm (c. 1033-1109). Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury for the last sixteen years of his life, is one of the foremost philosopher-theologians of the Middle Ages. His keen and rigorous thinking earned him the title "The Father of Scholasticism," and his influence is discernible in figures as various as Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, the voluntarists of the late-thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the Protestant reformers.
In part I of this book, Visser and Williams lay out the framework of Anselm's thought: his approach to what he calls "the reason of faith," his account of thought and language, and his theory of truth. Part II focuses on Anselm's account of God and the divine attributes, and it shows how Anselm applies his theory of language and thought to develop a theological semantics that at once respects divine transcendence and allows for the possibility of divine rational knowledge. In Part III, Visser and Williams turn from the heavenly to the animal. They elucidate Anselm's theory of modality and his understanding of free choice, an idea that was, for Anselm, embedded in his conception of justice. The book concludes with a discussion of Incarnation, Atonement, and original sin, as the authors examine Anselm's argument that the death of a God-man is the only possible remedy for human injustice.

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BrandOxford University Press
Pub dateNov 17, 2008
ISBN-100195309383
ISBN-139780195309386
LanguageEnglish
Dimensions5.5 × 0.88 × 8.5 in
Weight1 lb
Last updated 2026-03-13 11:05
$121.00
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Oxford Handbook of Medieval Philosophy
This <em>Handbook</em> is intended to show the links between the philosophy written in the Middle Ages and that being done today. Essays by over twenty medieval specialists, who are also familiar with contemporary discussions, explore areas in logic and philosophy of language, metaphysics, epistemology, moral psychology ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy and philosophy of religion. Each topic has been chosen because it is of present philosophical interest, but a more or less similar set of questions was also discussed in the Middle Ages. No party-line has been set about the extent of the similarity. Some writers (e.g. Panaccio on Universals&#x3b; Cesalli on States of Affairs) argue that there are the closest continuities. Others (e.g. Thom on Logical Form&#x3b; Pink on Freedom of the Will) stress the differences. All, however, share the aim of providing new analyses of medieval texts and of writing in a manner that is clear and comprehensible to philosophers who are not medieval specialists. <p/>The <em>Handbook </em>begins with eleven chapters looking at the history of medieval philosophy period by period, and region by region. They constitute the fullest, most wide-ranging and up-to-date chronological survey of medieval philosophy available. All four traditions - Greek, Latin, Islamic and Jewish (in Arabic, and in Hebrew) - are considered, and the Latin tradition is traced from late antiquity through to the seventeenth century and beyond.
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