Rise now, O frail person! Flee, for a little while, your occupations; hide yourself, for a time, from your unsettling thoughts. Cast aside, now, your heavy cares, and put away your toilsome business. Give room for a little while to God; and rest for a short time in him. Enter the inner chamber of your mind; shut out all thoughts save that of God, and those that can aid you in seeking him; close your door and seek him. Speak now, my whole heart! Speak now to God, saying, “I seek your face; your face, Lord, will I seek” (Psalm 27.8). And come now, O Lord my God, teach my heart where and how it may seek you, where and how it may find you.
I was thinking
about St. Anselm and the Proslogion today. My father, who was a
philosopher and a professor of philosophy, recommended it to me (among other
books) when I was a teenager and became interested in philosophical questions.
I didn’t really get the ever-controversial “ontological argument for God” at
the time (and one could claim that there are actually two separate arguments), but I loved (and still love) the first and last chapters for their
spiritual depth and authenticity. One can truly “hear” Anselm’s voice and personality in those chapters, despite the passing of almost a millennium since they were
written. Anselm remains one of the most interesting figures of the eleventh
century, and not only because of his philosophy and theology. He was deeply involved in both the civil and
religious controversies of his time, and this meant that his later life was
deeply unsettled, which makes the depth and focus of his writings all the more
remarkable. Those works were tremendously influential in the Middle Ages, and
philosophers still quarrel over the “ontological arguments.” I haven't read any
of his other works (except for a few short selections), but I never grow tired of the first and last chapters of
the Proslogion.
