Anselm Anselm was born in 1033 to noble parents in a place called Aosta in Italy. He and his mother always had a strong relationship, but his relationship with his father was quite different. They never did get along well at all. Anselm knew at an early age that he wanted to be a monk. While a child, he imagined that heaven rested in the mountains of Jupiter high above his home and this possibly helped to foster that dream. Anselm later went through a brief period in which he no longer wanted to become a monk, but at the age of fifteen he tried to become a monk and failed. With the death of his mother and an ever-deteriorating relationship with his father, Anselm left home in 1056 to study with Lanfranc. During the time that Anselm was under Lanfranc, he studied to the extent that the late nights and cold, and hunger that he endured were making him quite weak. In 1060, Anselm turned to corporate religion and became monk at Bec, and three years later was elevated to the position of prior. These years were considered years of silence for Anselm. During this time he wrote nothing for the public but instead spent his time in devotion to teaching his pupils in the monastery, and immersing himself in the studies of St. Augustine and the Bible. In 1070, Anselm began his writing. First came his letters and prayers, then earlier works such as Monologion and Proslogion, then in September of 1078, he was elected abbot of Bec. After the first of Anselm’s writings, his theology and writing style developed. While his earlier works were poetic and endearing, Anselm gradually matured in his thinking, leaving behind some of the poetic beauty, but picking up a sense of himself and how to deal with the religious issues that faced him. By the time of his death, Anselm was so devoted to his writings that on his deathbed he was still hoping that he would be able to write a book on the origin of the soul – a book that would never be written, With some prestige behind his writings, it came as a severe blow him when Roscelin, an intellect of this time, noted Anselm as a supporter of a heretodoxical understanding of the trinity that he had recently written.
This book, first required readers not just to read books and earn knowledge of how to write, but it encourages readers to start to write while reading this book. Yaghjian suggests a concrete, clear way to begin to write good theology, thus, to write well is just to start writing it (4). To answer the fundamental question of “what is writing and why do people write?” Yaghjian attempts to answer under the title of “the Sociorhetorical Context of Writing Theology.” To sum up the answer, people write “to communicate people” (5), passing the information “across time and space” (5), because writer has intention to leave behind to his audience.
On the fourteenth of January 1809, Sebastian Wimmer was born in the small town of Thalmassing, Germany. His parents, Peter and Elizabeth Lang Wimmer, were tavern keepers. Sebastian’s desire to help other individuals was apparent at an early age, for he believed he had been called by the Lord to devote his life exclusively to the priesthood. The simple monastic life was enticing! Sebastian Wimmer was an intelligent young man. He attended the University of Regensburg, also known as Ratisbon, where he studied many classical and philosophical courses, and later studied law at the University of Regensburg. A scholarship opened up in the Gregorianum, and Wimmer felt obligated to learn more about it in pursuit of his study for the priesthood. Wimmer took the competitive scholarship exam. He was offered a scholarship and remained there until he completed his theological studies. On the thirty-first of July 1831, at the age of twenty-two, Sebastian...
Allegorizations of the Active and Contemplative Lives in Philo, Origen, Augustine, and Gregory. This paper examines the allegorical interpretations given to several Scriptural pairs as they relate to the idea of the active and contemplative lives of Philo, Origen, Augustine, and Gregory. As will be shown, Augustine combines elements found in the two previous writers to form his allegory of the two wives of Jacob as representative of the active and contemplative lives. In Philo, most of the essential elements of later Christian thought in the active and contemplative lives are already present.
Francis of Assisi is one of the most influential personalities in the entire world. In the book ‘Francis of Assisi: Performing the Gospel Life,’ Cunningham recounts the life of this humble monk who lived in the medieval times, and shaped the Christian life, which spread in Western culture throughout the rest of history. I believe Cunningham accurately accounts for the life of Francis of Assisi, and in doing so; he provides a trajectory of the Christian faith from its early and historical proponents through its fusion with western culture, and its subsequent spread throughout the world.
In his youth, St. Boniface encountered many priests or clerics who traveled from town to town. Through these spiritual conversations, it became evident to St. Boniface that he wanted to pursue a life with God. Eventually, after continuos begging and his fathers fatal sickness, he was sent to the care of the Monastery of Examchester. (Appleton) It is here, that St. Boniface expressed to the Abbot at the time, that he wanted to live a monastic life. The father of the monastery, after council, granted him his wish. Here is where the saint began to prove his love for God, and could begin his journey of the Christian life. After exceeding all expectations and surpassing the knowledge of his teachers, he moved to a neighboring monastery, called Nursling, whereby he studied under the influence of Abbot Winbert.(St. Boniface Church) Here he gained vast knowledge of scriptures and the spiritual exposition of the Bible. Here, he gained such a reputation that men and women from far and wide traveled to study scriptures under his guidance. At the age of 30 he was humbly ordained a priest and yet another branch of his life was fulfilled.
There are often many mixed views when discussing God’s existence. In Anselm’s works “The Proslogion” and “Anselm’s Reply to Gaunilo” and Gaunilo’s work the “Reply on Behalf of the Fool”, both of their philosophies on the matter are imparted. Anselm’s logic regarding God is correct as he sustains his argument even when it confronted with criticisms and it is comprehensible.
Anselm Kiefer was born in Donaueschingen, Germany on March 8, 1945. In later years he became one of the most prominent figures in the Neo-Expressionist art movement. He studied law at the University of Freiburg until 1966. In 1966 he became an artist and was a student of Joseph Beuys who is another German artist (Safra pg.139).
In Virgil’s famous text The Aeneid he writes about the history of the coming of Rome and the journey of its Trojan founder, Aeneas, from the wreckage of his old home at Troy. While this text is extremely supportive of the greatness of the Roman Empire, it also has a distinctly private second voice that talks about loss. We also find that in Confessions by Saint Augustine the author at times addresses God very personally, and at other times does not refer to him much at all. The private tones of these two texts contrast in that Augustine’s is generally positive, while the corresponding voice in Virgil describes loss.
The relationship between Peter Abelard and Heloise failed to be established with strong bonds between the young couple, allowing lust to be the sole, capricious foundation of the relationship. Peter Abelard was a 12th century philosopher who after beginning to lecture on the Scriptures began to gain more notoriety throughout France and much of Europe. This newfound fame soon developed into conceit, Abelard thinking himself “the only philosopher in the world” (Historia Calamitatum 9). This attitude gave way to a lifestyle of flesh, prostitutes, and inability to focus on philosophy. Peter Abelard met Heloise, a young woman with great promise of being a student, while traveling through Paris (9). Rather than establishing a relationship based on a strong foundation, Abelard bases his interest on Heloise through more extraneous factors; Abelard bases ...
Kevin Killeen and Peter J. Forshaw. "The Word and the World." Biblical Exegesis and Early Modern Science, 220-225.
"EXPLORING THEOLOGY 1 & 2." EXPLORING THEOLOGY 1 2. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 May 2014.
One of the first literary work studied by our class was “Beowulf,” the longest and greatest surviving Anglo-Saxon poem. The poem is packed full of Christian and Pagan elements that are constantly fighting for the dominant position. In order to understand these thematic elements portrayed throughout “Beowulf,” we must first discover
Though the origins of the epic poem Beowulf lie in the Pagan Anglo-Saxon era, by the time it was recorded, most Saxons had converted to Christianity. The story seems to be told partly from a heathen point of view and also partly from a biblical. Beowulf seeks glory, crediting it to God, yet a lot of his works are said to have been fated, and he seems to be trying to earn immortality on the earth, and not in an afterlife or in heaven. To determine the role of religion in the poem, the difference between fate and God’s providence must be examined, and examples of Pagan beliefs and Christian beliefs in the story should be discussed.
Just as the authors’ Judeo-Christian God created man in his own image, Proust and Descartes fashion their creator-narrators as themselves—Marcel, as Proust, a writer in search of complete description (the expression of complete feeling); the Meditator, as Descrates, a thinker in search of complete knowledge. The authors are the self-referential sources of their narrators’ (and of their own) quests for truth. In this way, from their ideas of truth and of themselves, both Proust and Descartes, indeed, conceive their own
In Anselm’s “Proslogion” and Descartes’ “ Meditations on First Philosophy,” Anselm and Descartes offer their own answers to one of the most important questions in life, which is whether God exists. I will point out similarities and differences in the two arguments, and I will argue why Descartes ‘proof’ is more persuasive.