, means "faith seeking understanding" or "faith seeking intelligence", is a Latin sentence by Anselm of Canterbury, which had been the first title for his Proslogion (I). It articulates the close relationship between faith and human reason.
Anselm states: "" ("I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but rather, I believe in order that I may understand").
The sentence represents the theological method stressed by Augustine (354âÂÂ430) and Anselm of Canterbury ( â 1109), in which one begins with faith in God and on the basis of that faith moves on to further understanding of Christian truth or faith: intellectus fidei.
See also
References
Further reading
- Karl Barth : ë Fides quaerens intellectum û ; La preuve de l'existence de Dieu d'après Anselme de Cantorbéry, Delachaux et Niestlé (Bibliothèque de Théologie), Neuchâtel et Paris, 1958, 160 p. (cours donné àBâle, en allemand en 1930).
- Marilyn McCord Adams : ë Fides Quaerens Intellectum û; St. AnselmâÂÂs Method In Philosophical Theology, dans Faith and Philosophy, vol. 9 (1992), 4.
- Julien Bayart : The Concept of Mystery According to St. Anselm of Canterbury, dans Recherches de Théologie ancienne et médiévale, vol. 9 (1937).
- Michel Corbin : La significations de lâÂÂunum argumentum du Proslogion, dans Anselm Studies, vol. 2 (1988).
- ÃÂtienne Gilson : Sens et nature de lâÂÂargument de saint Anselme, dans Archives dâÂÂhistoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Age, vol. 9 (1934).
- Alvin Plantinga : The Ontological Argument, from St. Anselm to Contemporary Philosophers, Garden City, New York, Anchor Books, 1965.
- Katherine Rogers : Can Christianity be Proven? Saint Anselm on Faith and Reason, dans Anselm Studies, vol. 2 (1998).