Preaching Anselm: How Should We Understand God?

Editor's Note: Below is a "Monday Sermon," our attempt at Patheos' Preachers Portal to provide sermons that pastors can enjoy and learn from. It is our hope that this particular series from Daniel Harrell, which preaches through the Church Fathers, will encourage pastors, show them a way of approaching theological education from the pulpit, and refresh their theological memories. See Reverend Harrell's columnist page for more information. As human beings, we’re wired to wonder. From the very moment our eyes open and our perception emerges, we’re checking out the environment in order to make sense of our surroundings. Not long after the words come, the verbal questions surface. As toddlers, we just can’t stop asking why, why, why? In time, as we grow and experience more of the world, the questions grow more sophisticated and abstract: “Who am I? Why am I here? Where did I come from? Where am I headed?” These ultimate questions inevitably lead into the realm of theology. Theology is the rational-intellectual inquiry into the nature of God, but this inquiry is hardly limited to pondering God. Theology opens a host of other metaphysical and philosophical doors. From theology you derive your view of the world, of life, and of living. If you’re a Christian you’re already aware of this. Your view of God does affect your view of practically everything else. But what would happen if suddenly you found out that your view was wrong? What would happen if you suddenly found out that your idea about God what simply something someone had manufactured and that it wasn’t really true at all? What if theology, a purely human endeavor, turned out to be little more than a function of the human imagination? What if theology turned out to be simply a protective cover behind which personal conviction and preference is couched? Is there any real connection between reality and our understanding of it, or is reality merely a product of our perceptions and their accompanying explanations? Basically, how do you know that God is really out there? Anselm of Canterbury, perhaps the greatest theologian between Augustine and Aquinas, developed one of the most creative answers to this question, one that continues under intense deliberation. Anselm was born of an affluent family in northern Italy around 1033. In 1060 he joined a Benedictine monastery in Normandy of which he was eventually elected abbot. In 1093 Anselm became the archbishop of Canterbury where he continually fought with the King of England over the church’s independence from secular control. This power struggle forced him in and out of exile, during which he wrote prolifically on a host of subjects, among the most notable being his treatise on the incarnation entitled Why God Became Man. Anselm returned to Canterbury for good in 1106 and died on April 21, 1109. During his abbot years he acquired such a reputation for learning and piety that his monks urged him to write out the meditations and thoughts that had served them so well. Thus, in 1077, Anselm composed his Monologium in which he promoted God’s supremacy of being and reflected upon God’s attributes. This was so enthusiastically received that Anselm followed it up in 1078 with his Proslogium (catchy titles, I know). It was in the Proslogium that Anselm presented his reasoning for the existence of God. Immanuel Kant, the noted 18th century philosopher, labeled Anselm’s line of reasoning as an ontological argument whereby proof for God’s onto (being) was derived from logos meaning logic or reason. The argument went something like this: God is that about which no greater thought can be thought. Anselm wrote, This definition of God “is indeed so true that it cannot be thought of as not being true. Given that it is quite possible to think of something whose non-existence cannot be thought of. This thing must be greater than something whose non-existence can be thought of. So, if this thing than which no greater can be thought can be thought of as not existing, then that very thing than which no greater can be thought is not a thing than which no greater can be thought. This would be a contradiction. Therefore it is true that there exists something than which no greater can be thought and that this thing cannot be thought of as not existing.” Pretty simple, huh? “O Lord God,” Anselm concluded, “you are this thing so truly that you therefore do exist.” Okay, let me parse this out for you. First, God is defined as “that than which no greater thing can be thought.” Now the idea of such a being is one thing, but the reality is another thing entirely. Anselm’s point is that the reality (existence) of something is greater than the mere idea (non-existence) of that same thing, just like thinking of a hundred dollar bill is a much different than having one in your pocket. Therefore if the idea of God as the greatest thing is in fact only an idea but not a reality, then it can’t be the greatest thing. Why? Because the reality of God would automatically have to be greater than this idea of God. Therefore the greatest thing has to exist in order for it to truly be the greatest thing. Consequently, God (the real greatest thing) must exist. Get it? If this leaves you glazed, join the club. Anselm’s logic continues to befuddle philosophers even now. There are flaws. The most common criticism is of Anselm’s assertion that a definition always infers existence. Say that you have in your mind the most perfect idea of a husband or wife ever conceived -- a potential spouse so great than no greater can be thought. She/he cooks and cleans and satisfies your every physical and emotional need. She/he is gorgeous and perceptive and attentive and sensitive and a marvelous conversationalist. And stinking rich. Whatever. According to Anselm’s logic, such a greatest person must exist if you’re able to conceive them in your mind as greatest; otherwise you wouldn’t be able to conceive such a person as the greatest. For those of you out there with those elaborate relational checklists, this should give you hope! Practically speaking, however, you know that such a perfect person doesn’t really exist. Anselm’s logic appears to based on nothing more than a philosophical sleight of hand. Accordingly, the ontological argument is defective -- God’s existence cannot be ascertained by deductive reason alone. But, ironically, Anselm never contended this was the case in the first place. If you actually read the Proslogium , you discover Anselm’s thinking to be entirely different than what Kant thought Anselm thought. The remarkable Swiss theologian Karl Barth, deeply influenced by Anselm, called attention to the fact that Anselm’s starting point was never cognitive reason but spiritual faith. Faith leads reason, Barth insisted, not the other way around. Jeffery Pugh, Professor of Religious Studies at Elon College, explains, “Anselm had an overwhelming sense that the glory of God is inaccessible to human understanding and an accompanying belief that it is this very inaccessibility that [stretches] our minds in search of God... Rationality takes place most accurately and completely within the dimensions of faith... Reason has to believe in order to understand... The fact that we cannot think of God because God lies at the limit of our understanding, except as the very thought that does lie at the limit of our understanding, means that reason detached from faith cannot achieve understanding.” So where does this faith come from? Anselm believed that it was prayer and meditation, not philosophical and conceptual cogitation, that start you toward God. Here’s what he prayed: Lord Jesus Christ; Let me seek you by desiring you, and let me desire you by seeking you; let me find you by loving you, and love you in finding you. I confess, Lord, with thanksgiving, that you have made me in your image, so that I can remember you, think of you, and love you. But that image is so worn and blotted out by faults, and darkened by the smoke of sin, that it cannot do that for which it was made, unless you renew and refashion it. Lord, I am not trying to make my way to your height, for my understanding is in no way equal to that, but I do desire to understand a little of your truth which my heart already believes and loves. I do not seek to understand so that I can believe, but I believe so that I may understand; and what is more, I believe that unless I do believe, I shall not understand. Anselm was convinced that God cannot be known through human ingenuity or effort. Instead, beginning with a posture of prayer, the debris of human sin and selfishness must first be cleared away and room made for an understanding and relationship with God based on his terms rather than your own. Understanding comes through faith. You believe so that you may understand. Anselm is not seeking for what possibly can be. Instead Anselm seeks only what possibly cannot fail to be, namely, almighty God. God bestows, by his grace, any ability that you might possess to approach and think rightly about him. God is the master of all means of knowing so in the actuality of knowing, God even there orders the connection between what you know and what is real. On the basis of his gracious and free decision, God sets the parameters for truth and determines the extent to which it is to be obtained. You cannot move from unbelief to belief by way of reason. To acquire faith in a “reasonable” God is merely another form of idolatry. Instead, Anselm asserts that it is by recognizing reason’s inefficiency (a thoroughly postmodern notion) that faith emerges. It is this faith that then spurs you on toward true reason and eventual understanding. Faith is not some ethereal mind game, not at all. It finds its foundation in Scripture and creed, in community and experience -- all of which exist free from the requirement of any human consensus. The God who exists is all the consensus you need. Do you struggle with knowing God? Recognize that the answer does not lie in figuring God out but in humbling yourself in faith and allowing yourself to be figured in to God himself. Check your motives, your desires; search for any corrupting intentions and then -- redirected Godward in faith through prayer and worship, within community -- faith like gravity will pull you ever deeper into communion with your God and into a fuller understanding and experience of all things. It will be as Paul himself prayed for the Colossians, “I want your hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that you may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” And in the end with all that, you’ll find inexpressible joy. May Anselm’s prayer be ours: “Grant O Lord that we may cleave to you without parting, worship you without wearying, serve you without failing, faithfully seek you, happily find you, forever possess you, the only God, blessed world without end. Amen.”