1001Philosophers

Augustine of Hippo vs Anselm of Canterbury vs Thomas Aquinas

Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas are the three most influential philosophers of the Latin Christian tradition. Augustine, writing in the early fifth century, formed the inheritance Anselm received six centuries later and Aquinas eight centuries later. The three together represent the development of medieval Christian philosophy from late antiquity through the high scholastic synthesis.

Key differences at a glance

Augustine of HippoAnselm of CanterburyThomas Aquinas
Philosophical inheritance Platonic: soul distinct from body, knowledge of eternal Forms.Augustinian Platonism extended into rigorous logic.Aristotelian: soul is form of body, knowledge from the senses.
Argument for God From the soul's restless ascent toward the eternal.Ontological: a priori from the concept of God.Five Ways: a posteriori from features of the world.
Reason and grace Fallen reason must be illumined by divine grace.Faith seeking understanding through rational analysis.Reason and revelation are continuous from different starting points.
Method Confessional and meditative philosophical theology.Tightly logical analysis of theological concepts.Comprehensive systematic synthesis of Aristotle and Christian doctrine.

Biographical facts

Augustine of HippoAnselm of CanterburyThomas Aquinas
Dates 354 – 4301033 – 11091225 – 1274
Nationality RomanItalianItalian
Era MedievalMedievalMedieval
Profile Augustine of Hippo →Anselm of Canterbury →Thomas Aquinas →

Where they agree

All three held that philosophy and Christian revelation can be integrated, all three demonstrated the existence of God by rational argument, and all three held the immortality of the soul. Each treated philosophical theology as in service of faith seeking understanding.

Where they disagree

The disagreements concern philosophical foundations and method. Augustine's philosophy is fundamentally Platonic: the soul is essentially distinct from the body, knowledge approaches the eternal Forms (now identified with the divine ideas), and fallen reason must be illumined by divine grace. Anselm's ontological argument moves a priori from the very concept of God to God's necessary existence, in a self-consciously Augustinian register. Aquinas is fundamentally Aristotelian: the soul is the form of the body, knowledge originates in sense experience, and the Five Ways move a posteriori from observable features of the world to the existence of God. Augustine's Platonism gives way to Aquinas's Aristotelianism, with Anselm as the most rigorous high-medieval expression of the Augustinian inheritance.

Representative quotes

Augustine of Hippo

  • “Love, and do what you will.”

    Once for all, then, a short precept is given thee: Love , and do what thou wilt: whether thou hold thy peace , through love hold thy peace; whether thou cry out, through love cry out; whether thou correct, through love correct; whether thou spare, through love do thou spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good .

  • “What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks me, I do not know.”

    Quid est ergo tempus? Si nemo ex me quaerat, scio; si quaerenti explicare velim, nescio.

  • “Lord, give me chastity and continence, but not yet.”

    At ego adulescens miser ualde, miser in exordio ipsius adulescentiae, etiam petieram a te castitatem et dixeram, 'Da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo.

Anselm of Canterbury

  • “Faith seeks understanding.”

    Fides quaerens intellectum

  • “Fides quaerens intellectum”

    Faith seeking understanding | Original title of the Proslogion (1078)

  • “Original title of the Proslogion (1078)”

    Fides quaerens intellectum

Thomas Aquinas

  • “The highest manifestation of life consists in this: that a being governs its own actions.”

    Vita enim in hoc maxime manifestatur quod aliquid movet se ipsum; quod autem non potest moveri nisi ab alio, quasi mortuum esse videtur.

  • “Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.”

    Tria sunt homini necessaria ad salutem: scilicit scientia credendorum, scientia desiderandorum, et scientia operandorum.

  • “Pange, lingua, gloriosi Corporis mysterium Sanguinisque pretiosi, Quem in mundi pretium Fructus ventris generosi Rex effudit gentium.”

    Sing, my tongue, the Savior's glory, Of His Flesh the mystery sing; Of the Blood, all price exceeding, Shed by our immortal King. | Pange, Lingua (hymn for Vespers on the Feast of Corpus Christi), stanza 1

Pairwise comparisons

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