God is the most perfect being there is; since a God who were merely conceived and did not exist would be less perfect than a God who exists, God must therefore exist.

— Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109), Theologe, Erzbischof

Topics: Doubt & Hard Questions, God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit

Anselm of Canterbury

Anselm von Canterbury (1033–1109) war ein aus Italien stammender Benediktinermönch, katholischer Theologe und Erzbischof von Canterbury, der als Mitbegründer der Frühscholastik gilt. Er prägte das Programm eines Glaubens, der nach rationaler Einsicht strebt („fides quaerens intellectum“), und formulierte den ontologischen Gottesbeweis sowie die Lehre von der stellvertretenden Genugtuung Christi. Für Bibelleser bleibt sein Werk ein klassischer Bezugspunkt für das theologische Verständnis der Versöhnung, auch wenn seine an mittelalterlichen Rechts- und Ehrbegriffen orientierte Argumentation bis heute kontrovers diskutiert wird.

All quotes by Anselm of Canterbury (14)

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The grip of our faith by which we hold on to the Lord may loosen. But the One in whom we believe holds us with his grip.
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A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.
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Now that I am a Christian I do not have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable.
C.S. Lewis

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Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.
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All quotes · lumen.bible