Julie's Reviews > Proslogium/Monologium/Cur Deus Homo/In Behalf of the Fool

Over the course of three weeks, I will be reading this book, and I would like to review all three sections, but today, I will review only the first, as that is the only part I have read so far. The Proslogium was my first introduction to Scholasticism, which is the study of all human knowledge brought together as a whole under the authority of revelation. In an age where skepticism and relativity dominate our cultures, I feel a great desire to return to a more advanced system of Scholasticism, one where all seven elements of society are equal under God. For instance, Government, Community, Business, Media, Family, Church, and Education ought to be horizontal to one another and not vying for the top to rule over others. How I would love to live in a society which is seeking to bring all knowledge together under the umbrella of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful--God.

Anselm begins his Proslogium (a Discourse, Latin) with the purpose to find out whether there is one single argument that can stand on its own to demonstrate that God exists. His writing is similar to St. Augustine's as like a prayer. He is humble, possesses a seeking attitude and writes with the hope of being able to see the face of God someday.

Anselm writes as a man who lives in the dark ages, with great hunger for the light which was with Christ when he walked upon the earth, "O wretched lot of man when he hath lost that for which he was made! O hard and terrible fate! Alas, what has he lost, and what has he found? What has departed, and what remains? He has lost the blessedness for which he was made, and has found the misery for which he was not made, That has departed without which nothing is happy, and that remains which, in itself, is only miserable. Man once did eat the bread of angels, for which he hungers now; he eateth now the bread of sorrows, of which he knew not then. Alas! For the mourning of all mankind, for the universal lamentation of the sons of Hades! He choked with satiety; we sigh with hunger. He abounded, we beg. He possessed in happiness, and miserably forsook his possession; we suffer want in unhappiness, and feel a miserable longing, and alas! We remain empty."

As I read his words, my heart went out to this good man who had not the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ but was hungry for it. It reminded me of Amos 8:11-12, wherein we learn of the Great Apostacy before the Fullness of Times, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor athirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it."

Update: November 23, 2016
I finished the Monologium and Cur Deus Homo and while I enjoyed seeing him work the logic on the Being of God and why God came down as Man, I struggled a little bit with the doctrines. He seems to spend a lot of time trying to make it all work, but still leaves the reader a bit confused; and sadly he doesn't realize that he is in the middle of a great apostasy, according to Isaiah. How grateful I am that the Gospel has been restored to the earth and that we can understand the nature and being of God and the mission of Jesus Christ on earth and in heaven through a Living Prophet Today.