Looking at God

Abstract Anselm develops his account of the divine nature most extensively in two of his earliest treatises, but the concept of God he develops there remains consistent throughout his career. In neither work does he pretend to be developing an account of the divine nature from scratch: the God he is looking at and then looking for—that is, first describing and then seeking to prove—is explicitly the God of Christian belief. This is Anselm’s lifelong project of ‘faith seeking understanding’. His description of God is thus to some extent determined by revelation (refined through philosophy), but the argument that such a being exists is meant to be purely rational. This chapter explains how, according to Anselm, we can form an idea of a being of unsurpassable perfection. It explores such attributes as eternity (timelessness), immutability, and immateriality. It shows how Anselm argues for divine simplicity—the doctrine that there is no multiplicity in God, so that God’s attributes are all identical with each other and with God himself—and explains why the apparently counterintuitive doctrine of simplicity is so important and indispensable for Anselm. Anselm considers and seeks to resolve various difficult puzzles about divine power, knowledge, justice, and mercy. Rightly regarded as one of the definitive expositions of classical theism or perfect-being theology, Anselm’s account of the divine nature remains influential to this day, a fertile source of inspiration and a locus of intense debate.