Recent Publications - February 2011 - Updated

Books

L. Mackey, Faith in Order: Natural Theology in the Augustinian Tradition, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto 2011.
Publisher's blurb: From its first statement by Augustine, through its confirmation by Anselm and its spiritualization by Bonaventure, to its final and fundamental formulation by Duns Scotus, the Augustinian idea of order is clearly discernible in the characteristic proofs of God’s existence offered by these philosopher-theologians. Not without reason, since for all of them the being of God is the guarantor – origin, measure, and end – of the order of the cosmos. It is, moreover, the distinctive manner in which each of them defines the problem of theistic proof that reveals most perspicuously the way he conceives the idea of order that informs it. Their several proofs are their individual ways of appropriating their common heritage.
In this posthumous work, Louis Mackey sketches the adventures of the idea of order in the Augustinian tradition. Beginning with the proposition that not all who prove the existence of God are proving the same thing, nor do they understand the proof in the same way, Mackey shows how, even within the bounds of the Augustinian tradition, modes of proof and conceptions of what is to be proven can vary when questioned from within, as by Anselm’s fool, or challenged from without by the philosophy of Aristotle.

Articles

C.H. Conn, 'Anselmian Spacetime: Omnipresence and the Created Order' in Heythrop Journal, 52 (2011) 260-270.
Abstract: For Anselm, the attribute of omnipresence is not merely concerned with where God exists, but with where and when God exists. His account of this attribute thus precipitates a discourse on the nature of space and time: how they are related to God, to one another, and to the rest of the created order. In the course of this analysis Anselm articulates a number of positions which are generally thought to be the sole possession of modernity. In Part One of what follows I argue, first, that Anselm provides us with an analysis of objects which have both spatial and temporal parts, and second, that he provides us with a clear distinction between those objects which persist by enduring through time in their entirety and those which persist by being temporally extended. In Part Two I argue that Anselm's analysis of omnipresence is consciously informed by a conception of spacetime, according to which space and time form a single, four-dimensional manifold in which objects both persist and move.

Recent Publications - January 2011

Articles

L. Schumacher, 'The lost legacy of Anselm's argument: re-thinking the purpose of proofs for the existence of God' in Modern Theology, 27 (2011) 87-101.
Ian Logan comments: Schumacher stresses Anselm's Augustinianism leading her to depart somewhat from Anselm's text, which is why, I suspect, she has to say that 'Anselm implicitly concludes' in introducing a key step in her argument. She should perhaps have addressed what Anselm says in Ep. 136 to Fulk. He argues that rational arguments should be used against the impious so that they can see how irrational their rejection is, whilst Christians should accept on faith and progress to understanding. Schumacher's account addresses the Christian element of Anselm's Proslogion argument, but ignores the role of the unbeliever. The fool of the Proslogion is an unbeliever, and that is not irrelevant to what Anselm is doing in his argument.

Reviews

T.J. Holopainen, 'Review of Ian Logan, Reading Anselm's Proslogion: The History of Anselm's Argument and its Significance Today' in Heythrop Journal, 52 (2011) 129-130.
Ian Logan comments: Holopainen too fails to understand the significance of the role of the unbeliever in the Proslogion.

Recent Publications - December 2010

Articles

G.E.M. Gasper, 'Envy, Jealousy, and the Boundaries of Orthodoxy: Anselm of Canterbury and the Genesis of the Proslogion' in Viator-UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies- 41 (2010) 45-68.

Reviews

B. Goebel, 'Review of Hansjurgen Verweyen, Anselm von Canterbury 1033-1109. Denker, Beter, Erzbischof' in Philosophisches Jahrbuch, 117 (2010) 351-356.

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.

Recent Publications - October 2010 - Updated

Articles

Sigurd Baark, 'Anselm: Platonism, language and truth in Proslogion' [sic], Scottish Journal of Theology, 63 (2010) 379-397.
Caveat lector: Appears unaware of the dialectical origins of the argument of the Proslogion.

Reviews

Matthew Barrett, 'Review of Ian Logan, Reading Anselm's Proslogion: The History of Anselm's Argument and its Significance Today, Ashgate 2009' in Journal of Theological Studies, 2010 (61) 826-829.

Richard Cross, 'Review of Sandra Visser and Thomas Williams, Anselm (Great Medieval Thinkers series), Oxford University Press 2009' in Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 61 (2010) 820-821.

Anthony J. Lisska,'Review of Ian Logan, Reading Anselm's Proslogion: The History of Anselm's Argument and its Significance Today, Ashgate 2009' in Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 61 (2010) 821-822.

M. Staunton, 'Review of Benedicta Ward, Anselm of Canterbury: His Life and Legacy, SPCK 2009' in Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 61 (2010) 820-820.

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

Recent Publications - September 2010 - Updated

Articles

M.J.S. Bruno, 'The Investiture Contest in Norman England: A Struggle Between St. Anselm of Canterbury and The Norman Kings: Part II' in American Benedictine Review, 61 (2010) 307-324.

Bernd Goebel, 'Anselm's Elusive Argument: Ian Logan Reading the Proslogion' in Saint Anselm Journal, 7:1 (Fall 2009).
Caveat lector: pages in the Saint Anselm Journal no longer run consecutively - each article begins at page 1.

Thomas Gwozdz, 'Anselm's Theory of Freedom' in Saint Anselm Journal, 7:1 (Fall 2009).
Caveat lector: pages in the Saint Anselm Journal no longer run consecutively - each article begins at page 1.

Ian Logan, 'Saint Anselm' in The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 September 2010.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=120]
Requires a subscription.