Reading Anselm: Context and Criticism

A conference to be held at Boston College, 27-30 July 2015.

For more details go to conference website.
This Blogsite is dedicated to the work and legacy of Anselm of Aosta, Bec and Canterbury, who died in Canterbury on 21 April 1109.

© 2008-2015 Ian Logan. All rights reserved.
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Showing posts with label Events. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Events. Show all posts

Sunday, 21 December 2014

Reading Anselm: Context and Criticism, Boston College, July 2015

In July 2015 the first major international Anselm conference since the Canterbury conference of 2009 will take place in Boston. Keynote speakers are William Aird, Marcia Colish, Burcht Pranger, Denys Turner and Nicholas Watson.

You can find details of the conference and the call for papers at http://www.anselm2015.blogspot.co.uk/

Friday, 12 September 2014

Oxford day conference - Southern and Anselm

I have organised a day conference in Oxford with the support of Blackfriars (where I am a fellow) and St John's College. This is one of the first events to take place under the aegis of the nascent International Association for Anselm Studies (IAAS). Details of an international conference in Boston in July 2015 will follow shortly.

R.W. SOUTHERN: ANSELM'S BIOGRAPHER
A day conference on the impact of Sir Richard Southern's St Anselm and His Biographer more than 50 years after its publication

At Blackfriars Hall, St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LY
Saturday, 25 October 2014, 10.00 to 17.00

Speakers: Gillian Evans, Giles Gasper, David Luscombe, Alexander Murray, Samu Niskanen

Cost - £10; Students - free
Lunch and refreshments provided

A limited number of travel bursaries available for postgraduate students travelling within the UK

To book a place or for further information, you can contact me by clicking on this button:



You can also download a poster for the event HERE

Saturday, 17 November 2012

Report on 'St Anselm of Canterbury and His Legacy' at Blackfriars, Oxford, 15 November 2012

Report by Ian Logan

An audience from across the UK attended the launch of the new book on Anselm, St Anselm of Canterbury and His Legacy, a collection of essays by an international group of Anselm scholars.

The host was Fr Simon Gaine OP, the Regent of Blackfriars. The speakers were the editors of the volume, Dr Giles Gasper, Durham University, author of St Anselm of Canterbury and his Theological Inheritance, and Dr Ian Logan, Blackfriars Hall, Oxford University, author of Reading Anselm’s Proslogion: the history of Anselm’s argument and its significance today.

Fr Simon Gaine OP - Welcome address
Fr Simon spoke of the origins of the volume in the international conference held at Canterbury in 2009 to commemorate the 900th anniversary of Anselm's death. He went on to ask: ‘Who was St Anselm of Canterbury?’ An Italian who became a monk and abbot in Normandy then an archbishop in England. A respected teacher, a defender of church rights, but also a church reformer, a powerful spiritual writer of an influential collection prayers and meditations, a theologian and philosopher of brilliant originality. He left no lasting school of thought in the way that Augustine and Thomas did, but nevertheless his influence has been and continues to be great as the wide-ranging set of essays in this volume indicates. It is this influence, this legacy, that the volume captures.

Anselm has an important place in Christian thought, summed up in the phrase 'Faith seeking understanding' - a phrase he invented and which is always used whenever there is discussion of the relationship of faith and reason. Anselm is one the greatest exponents of the application of reason to faith.

 In this set of essays the editors first set out a picture of Anselm, who is 'refracted', as they put, it in the various essays presented in this volume. One of the intentional merits of the volume is that it contains much fresh scholarship from both established and young, up and coming scholars. From this volume, it is clear that Anselm studies are in a vibrant state. Interest in Anselm continues to grow apace. This volume will only serve to facilitate that growth.

Dr Giles Gasper - Anselm and the Bible: Narratives of Exile 
Anselm of Canterbury is famous for his insistence that he would establish positions of argument without reference to authorities and to the Bible as seen in the Monologion, Proslogion and Cur Deus Homo. What place then does Anselm give to biblical quotation within his theological scheme?

In his third Prayer to the Virgin Mary Anselm focuses on the role of the Virgin in carrying and bearing the creator of the world. Anselm alludes to the creation of light and the darkness that precedes it in the book of Genesis. To darkness, demons and sin, Mary’s child is the solution and salvation.

The opening chapter of the Proslogion is based around a compelling biblical narrative of exile. The chapter moves through a sequence of quotations from Matthew, Exodus, and Psalms, in which the consequences of the sin of Adam are explored. The desperate state of mankind and the need for grace is evoked. Anselm ends his opening with Genesis 1.27 ‘And God created man to his own image’, to reinforce the point that the image remains, but with a need for God to renew and redeem it. He then invokes Isaiah 7.9 on faith and understanding.

This ‘lyrical’ introduction, to use von Balthasar’s terminology, is important in setting up Anselm’s dialectical argument. Anselm provides biblical support for his statements, occasionally counter-posing the dialectical and the lyrical or biblical. Dialectic identifies what the argument is and how best to address it. The lyrical and biblical provide a reminder of both the reasons why this is beneficial, and of the limitations of human reason.

Dr Ian Logan - Some suggestions concerning the origin of the phrase, ‘than which nothing greater can be thought’ 
The phrase ‘than which nothing greater can be thought’ is central to Anselm’s argument for God in the Proslogion. Ian suggested that it is possible, even likely, that this phrase was derived by Anselm from the Roman Stoic philosopher, Seneca, who uses the identical phrase in his Natural Questions to describe the magnitude of the world. The fact that the phrase is used by Anselm as he addresses the unbeliever (the ‘fool’ of the Psalms, ‘who says in his heart, There is no God’) supports this view. Anselm was a dialectician, and in dialectical argumentation one of your first tasks is to get your opponent to agree to the terms you are using. In using this term, Anselm is inviting the unbeliever to accept a term an unbeliever uses, which he is therefore unlikely to identify with God as understood in Catholic thought, whose existence Anselm is seeking to prove.

The difficulty with this line of thought is that there are no known extant manuscripts of Seneca’s Natural Questions predating the early 12th century and Anselm wrote the Proslogion in the last quarter of the 11th century. Similar phrases can also be found in Cicero, Augustine and Boethius. However, the fact that Anselm uses exactly the same words as Seneca and that Anselm rarely uses quotations, suggests that this is an explicit quotation from Seneca and is supposed to be recognised as one. As such it throws light on Anselm’s intentions in his little book, the Proslogion, and indicates that Seneca’s work was known prior to the early 12th century.

Announcement 
After a stimulating question and answer session, the editors of the volume announced their intention to facilitate the establishing of a society or association for Anselm scholarship and that they are inviting expressions of interest from potential supporters and members. With this in mind, a one day conference at Blackfriars, Oxford, in 2013 is being planned, followed in 2014 by a full conference.

Saturday, 27 October 2012

Anselm Event - Update

'Saint Anselm of Canterbury and His Legacy'
The Aula, Blackfriars Hall, St Giles, Oxford
Thursday, 15 November, 2012 at 5 p.m.

Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, is holding a special event to launch the book, Saint Anselm of Canterbury and His Legacy, edited by Giles E. M. Gasper and Ian Logan, and published by the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, Toronto, and the Institute of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Durham University.

The editors will give two short papers -
Dr Giles Gasper, Durham: Anselm and the Bible: Narratives of Exile
Dr Ian Logan, Blackfriars: Some suggestions concerning the origin of the phrase, 'that than which nothing greater can be thought'

Followed by a wine/soft drinks reception.
Copies of the book will be available at discounted prices.
If you would like to attend the event, please let me know by clicking on the 'contact me' button above and completing the form.


Follow this event on twitter #AnselmEvents

Friday, 19 October 2012

Advance notice


‘Saint Anselm of Canterbury and His Legacy’
The Aula, Blackfriars Hall, St Giles, Oxford
Thursday, 15 November 2012, 5.00 p.m. 

To launch the book of the same title, commemorating the 900th anniversary of Anselm’s death, with an update on some of the current developments in Anselm studies.
Followed by a wine/soft drinks reception.

Speakers will be the editors of the volume:
Giles Gasper - Durham University
Ian Logan - Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford

All the welcome. 

Tuesday, 16 November 2010

Details of Anselm conference - 'Anselm and a new Europe'

Here is the progamme for the Anselm Conference to be held at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome from 25-27 November 2010.

Tuesday, 21 September 2010

Anselm and the 'new' Europe

"Anselm's participation in the construction process of the ‘new’ Europe" - a conference organised by the Faculty of Ecclesiastical History and Cultural Patrimony at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome - will take place from the 25th to the 27th November 2010.

For further details contact:

Segreteria Organizzativa Congresso Sant'Anselmo (Lucchesi 215)
Pontificia Università Gregoriana
Facoltà di Storia e Beni Culturali della Chiesa
Piazza della Pilotta 4
00186 Roma - Italy

Friday, 20 March 2009

Early Manuscripts of Anselm: a discussion with five manuscripts

The Bodleian Library, Lambeth Palace Library, and Trinity College Cambridge present
'Early Manuscripts of Anselm: a discussion with five manuscripts'

Bodleian Library, Oxford
Monday 27 April 2009
10:30am - 4:30pm

New Library Seminar Room

In the presence of the manuscripts

10:30am - 1.00pm

Booklet circulation in Normandy in the 1080s
(Bodleian MS. Rawlinson A. 392 presented by Richard Sharpe)

Booklet circulation in England in the 1090s
(Trinity College MS. B. 1. 37 presented by Teresa Webber)

2.00pm - 4:30pm

William of Malmesbury and the collected works and letters
(Lambeth Palace MS. 224 presented by Samu Niskanen)

The Canterbury collections of works and letters
(Bodleian MS. Bodley 271 and Lambeth Palace MS. 59 presented by Michael Gullick)

Respondents: Ian Logan, Rodney Thomson

Space is limited, so registration is essential.
e-mail: bookcentre@bodley.ox.ac.uk

Wednesday, 11 March 2009

St Anselm College, NH, Conference - Programme and Registration

The preliminary programme for the conference to be held at St Anselm College, New Hampshire, from 17-18 April 2009, has been published on-line and can be viewed here.

To obtain the registration forms as a Word document follow this link.

Information concerning logistics, booking of hotel rooms, etc., can be found here.

Tuesday, 3 March 2009

Canterbury Conference - Finalised Programme

The full programme for the Canterbury conference has been finalised and published on the Conference website. You can access details here.

Thursday, 12 February 2009

Canterbury Conference - Outline Programme

An outline of the programme for the Anselm conference in Canterbury has been published on the conference website. To view it click here.

Saturday, 17 January 2009

Register on-line for Canterbury conference

Registration for the Canterbury conference is now open and can be accessed at the Conference web-site.

Sunday, 21 December 2008

Reading Anselm's Proslogion

Another event in 2009 is the publication of my book, Reading Anselm's Proslogion: The History of Anselm's Argument and its Significance Today, details of which can be found at the website of the publisher, Ashgate.
It is the outcome of my interdisciplinary work on Anselm: palaeography, historical research, theology and philosophy. It contains parallel Latin/English texts of the Proslogion, Pro Insipiente and Responsio. I chose not to use the text of Schmitt's edition (S. Anselmi Opera Omnia), but to produce my own transcription of the text from Ms.Bodley 271, which I have argued has an important place in Anselm Studies. See my article, 'Ms Bodley 271: Establishing the Anselmian Canon?' in The Saint Anselm Journal, Vol 2.1 (Fall 2004) 67-80. It can be downloaded as a pdf file here.

Saturday, 22 November 2008

LANFRANC AND HIS LEGACY 1010-2010 BISHOPS AND ECCLESIASTICAL REFORM IN NORTH-WESTERN EUROPE (11TH-12TH CENTURIES)

The Office Universitaire d'Etudes Normandes (OUEN) of the University of Caen is planning to hold a conference at Cerisy-la-Salle in Normandy to mark the millennium of Lanfranc's birth in late September or early October 2010, lasting three and a half days. The principal themes of the conference will be (1) ecclesiastical structures, administration and jurisdiction, (2) religious communities (including the liturgy, monastic customs and the development of new forms of regular life at the turn of the eleventh and twelfth centuries) and (3) ecclesiastical involvement in secular affairs. We are hoping to attract papers on individual figures, especially bishops, both contemporary with Lanfranc and from the twelfth century.

We would like to invite proposals for papers to be accompanied by abstracts of no more than 300 words by 1 January 2009. The final choice of contributions for the programme will be made by the organisers (Veronique Gazeau, Julia Barrow and Fabrice Delivre). Papers should last no longer than 30 minutes and should be delivered in French; the organisers will assist with corrections. We intend to publish the conference proceedings.

Accommodation costs for speakers will be defrayed by OUEN and the Centre International de Cerisy-la-Salle, which may also be able to make a contribution towards travel expenses, but speakers will be encouraged to apply to other sources of funding for travel if possible.

We would like to encourage postgraduate students to attend the
conference.

Proposals to and further information from:

Dr Julia Barrow,
School of History,
University of Nottingham,
Nottingham NG7 2RD,
UK

Julia.Barrow@nottingham.ac.uk

Wednesday, 5 November 2008

Rome Symposium

Details of the symposium to be held at San Anselmo in Rome from 21 to 22 April 2009 can be found here.

Wednesday, 29 October 2008

St Anselm's College, NH - 'Faith and Reason from Saint Anselm to Pope Benedict XVI'

Details of the call for papers and relevant forms for the Anselm conference to be held at St Anselm's College, Manchester, New Hampshire, USA, from 17 to 18 April 2009, can be found here.

Monday, 27 October 2008

List Closed - 76 papers accepted for conference

The organising committee for the Anselm 2009 conference at Canterbury has announced that the deadline for proposals has passed and the no further papers will be accepted for the conference. The response to the call for papers has been very encouraging and we can look forward to what will be a truly international conference in Canterbury next April.

Details of speakers and papers can be found here.

Thursday, 2 October 2008

Keynote Speakers for Canterbury conference announced

They are:

Professor Marilyn McCord Adams (Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Oxford)
Paper Title: 'St. Anselm on the Goodness of God'

Professor Costante Marabelli (Facoltà di Teologia di Lugano)
Paper Title: ‘The Relation between Theory and Practice for Saint Anselm’

Professor Volker Leppin (Dekan, Theologische Fakultät, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena)
Paper Title: ‘Praying and thinking with Anselm: The Tractatus de primo principio of John Duns Scotus’

Aosta Conference and Celebration

Dates for the 2009 Anselm Conference in Aosta, Italy have been amended.

The conference will run from 1 to 3 October.

The theme of the conference is to be:

Anselmo d’Aosta: scelte storiche e motivazioni teoretiche
St Anselm: his historical choices and their theory
Saint Anselme: ses choix dans l'histoire et leur motivations théorétiques.

There will also be a celebration of Saint Anselm in Aosta on 10 October 2009, at which there will be a launch of the Italian translation of the Memorials of St Anselm.

Saturday, 21 June 2008

Announcement of Keynote Speaker

The Revd Dr Marilyn McCord Adams, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, has agreed to be one of the keynote speakers at next year's Canterbury conference. The title of her paper will be 'St. Anselm on the Goodness of God'.

Professor Adams is currently working on a book of the same title.