SOURCE: Worthen, J. F. “Augustine's De trinitate and Anselm's Proslogion: ‘Exercere Lectorum.'” In Collectanea Augustiniana, edited by Joseph T. Lienhard, Earl C. Muller, and Roland J. Teske, pp. 517-29. New York: Peter Lang, 1993.

In the following essay, Worthen asserts that St. Augustine in his De trinitate and Anselm in his Proslogion engage in a narrative process of leading readers toward an understanding of God, and compares the methods used by both writers to achieve this goal.

I

The power of speech, Socrates says in the Phaedrus, consists in ψυχαγωγία, which we might translate as “the leading of souls.”¹ Plato as an author is interested in discourse not as a neutral medium for the communication of information but as a way of leading—of shaping, transforming—the souls of his readers. Augustine and Anselm are similarly concerned to create texts that will not only transfer knowledge but engage their...