1001Philosophers

Anselm of Canterbury vs Thomas Aquinas

Anselm and Aquinas produced two of the most influential medieval arguments for the existence of God: Anselm's ontological argument and Aquinas's Five Ways. The two arguments differ as starkly in method as in conclusion.

At a glance

Anselm of CanterburyThomas Aquinas
Dates1033 – 11091225 – 1274
NationalityItalianItalian
EraMedievalMedieval
Movements Medieval Philosophy, Scholasticism, Christian Philosophy Medieval Philosophy, Scholasticism, Christian Philosophy
Profile Anselm of Canterbury → Thomas Aquinas →

Where they agree

Both held that the existence of God can be demonstrated by natural reason, both wrote within the Augustinian-Christian tradition, and both believed that philosophical theology is in service of faith seeking understanding. Both have remained reference points for natural theology to the present.

Where they disagree

Anselm's ontological argument moves a priori from the very concept of God — that than which nothing greater can be conceived — to God's necessary existence, without appeal to facts about the world. Aquinas rejected this strategy. His Five Ways move a posteriori, from observable features of the world (motion, causation, contingency, gradations of perfection, teleology) to the existence of a first cause. Aquinas held that the human intellect can know God only through created effects, not through direct conceptual analysis.

Representative quotes

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

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