The Unity of the Intellectual and Spiritual

The modern church often, and unfortunately, illustrates the dichotomy between the pastor and the theologian. This juxtaposition of heart and mind subtly argues that matters of theology and philosophy constitute a separate discipline from that of Christian devotional (or “more practical”) study. This distinction bears no credence or precedence in Christian tradition, however. The great church leaders of Nicaea and Constantinople were pastors concerned with preserving the salvific truth of the Gospel. Furthermore, the great medieval philosophers and doctors of the faith worked out their theological and doctrinal pursuits out of the spiritual pursuit for piety and illumination. St. Anselm of Canterbury’s Proslogion typifies this argument, demonstrating the use of philosophy in knowing and experiencing God in a devotional way.
The Proslogion makes extensive use of the philosophical discipline. In fact Anselm’s ontological proof for the existence of God stands as one of the great apologetic proofs for the existence of a divine being in the entire breadth of philosophy. However, from the outset of the work the Archbishop makes his purpose and goal for the writing of such a treatise abundantly clear: “to lift [one’s] mind to the contemplation of God, and seeks to understand what [one] believes” (Anselm, 83). Like Augustine, Anselm believed that faith precedes understanding in Christianity and in the importance of understanding in the maturation of the believer. His preface of Proslogion demonstrates that for Anselm, understanding the essence of God and His attributes are of the utmost importance to the piety and devotion of a Christian. To avoid such a pursuit and study would be to live one’s entire Christian life feeding solely on spiritual milk.
With that established, Anselm’s proof for the existence for God, as well as his discourse on the attributes of God, serves to guide the reader towards a deeper understanding and devotion to the Creator. Logically it follows that a person without doubt of the existence of God certainly faces less obstacles to serving and obeying Him than one who struggles with His existence in the first place. In addition, he who understands the complexities of God’s mercy and justice may delight even more than he who simply acknowledges these attributes on blind faith. Whether or not modern evangelicals share this view, Anselm likely would have not accepted “blind faith” as the ends of Christian belief. Rather one’s daily experience of and with God related in direct proportion to one’s comprehension of Him and His being (Anselm, 95).
Anselm recognized the limits of the human intellect in this pursuit. Even in his philosophical success to construct a single argument for God Anselm knew he had yet to fully experience God (Anselm, 97). In this light, Proslogion becomes a prayer or plea to God for illumination. He writes, “I pray, O God, that I may know You and love You, so that I may rejoice in You,” (Anselm, 103). No matter how clever or precise the argument may be, Anselm knows that it only by God’s grace that sinful man may know anything of Him. Therefore the believer must not only devote himself to diligent Theo-philosophical study, but also prayerfully seek Him and His illumination, humbly recognizing and confessing the grace required in such endeavors.
Proslogion, in the mind and intention of Anselm, is a devotional work. Though included in field of medieval and theological philosophy because of its contributions and value to the disciplines, for the eleventh century saint the discourse represented the earnest attempt on the part of sinful, yet redeemed man on earth to experience the glory and very nature of God. There is no precedent for making a distinction between philosophical theology and devotional piety and, furthermore, no need for it. The Proslogion demonstrates the profound use of such disciplines in the Christian faith and for the maturation of the believer. While the dangers of over-intellectualizing the faith abound, Christians today should not shudder from philosophical endeavor, but rather view the discipline, including the Proslogion, as “an example of meditation on the grounds of faith, in the person of one who investigates, in a course of silent reasoning with himself,” (Anselm, 82).