This reading of Anselm has been largely overlooked because his claim that God is ‘something than which nothing greater can be thought’43 is interpreted as a definition of God rather than a (non)definition. Indeed, it has the form of a definition but actually ascribes no positive essence to the divine: it does not say that God is the greatest conceivable being but rather that a greater than God cannot be thought. We can indeed conceive of something beyond thought but we cannot think of something beyond that.
