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  • Anselm of Canterbury and the Desire for the Word by Eileen C. Sweeney
  • Toivo J. Holopainen
Eileen C. Sweeney. Anselm of Canterbury and the Desire for the Word. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2012. Pp. xvii + 403. Cloth, $74.95.

In this highly useful book, Eileen Sweeney offers an overall interpretation of Anselm’s thought and output. Her method is to go through Anselm’s treatises and other writings in roughly chronological order, dividing them into seven groups, each to be discussed in its own chapter. In doing so, the author draws attention to material that is often neglected in discussions of Anselm’s thought. This is particularly the case with chapters 1 and 2, in which Anselm’s prayers and letters are discussed, respectively; as for the letters, the author mainly focuses on those containing spiritual guidance. The order of presentation can be supported on chronological grounds, as many of the prayers and some of the letters are among Anselm’s earliest writings. But there is also a programmatic reason: one of Sweeney’s main objectives in the book is to explore how the devotional aspects of Anselm’s writings relate to their academic aspects. Chapter 3 turns to Anselm’s work on logic and semantics, discussing the De grammatico and the Lambeth Fragments (or Philosophical Fragments). In the treatment of the former text, however, it is not indicated that the purpose of the treatise is to elucidate the semantics of paronymous terms, of which ‘grammaticus’ is an example (see Aristotle, Categories, 1a13–15); in fact, the term ‘paronymous’ is not mentioned at all. The next three chapters discuss the most important of Anselm’s theological and philosophical treatises and are longer than the others: the Monologion and the Proslogion (chapter 4), the three “philosophical” dialogues (chapter 5), and the Epistola de incarnatione Verbi, Cur Deus homo, and De conceptu virginali (chapter 6). Anselm’s last works, the De processione Spiritus Sancti and De concordia, are discussed in chapter 7.

The major part of each chapter is dedicated to describing the main content of Anselm’s treatises, one by one. To create the context, the author provides historical and thematic introductions, and the chapters end with concluding discussions on how the works in question relate to Anselm’s overall project. Even if one were not willing to follow the author all the way in her grand narrative, the descriptions of the individual treatises are highly instructive, with the extensive discussions of less familiar works such as the Epistola de incarnatione verbi and De conceptu virginali being among the highlights. Among other things, the author offers some highly illustrative examples of how authoritative writings, both scriptural and patristic, play their role in Anselm’s endeavor to clarify the content of faith with the aid of reason. Sweeney is well informed about recent studies on different areas of Anselm’s thought and makes good use of them. The work is carefully documented and well written.

However, I have misgivings about some features of the overall presentation of Anselm’s thought, culminating in the explanation of the Monologion and Proslogion. The author characterizes these treatises jointly as “prayerful meditations.” This is problematic, as there is nothing overtly prayerful in the austere monologue of the Monologion, and, even though Anselm uses the word ‘meditation’ to describe this treatise, it is rather different from the meditations properly so called in Anselm’s Prayers and Meditations. Making sense of the [End Page 314] similarities and differences between the Monologion and Proslogion is a major interpretive issue, but the author virtually dismisses it. Even otherwise, the discussion of the Proslogion is disappointing. The author has sensible things to say about Anselm’s argument for God’s existence, but she does not attempt to offer an exposition of the relevant (and notoriously controversial) parts of the Proslogion. She wants to do justice to the devotional exercise in the treatise, but her description of it is wanting. For example, the highly important chapter, Proslogion 14, receives only one line of discussion: “God is, he [Anselm] concludes, found and not found, seen in part but not wholly” (167).

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