Perspective

Despite the two introductions written by people other than St. Anselm, St. Anselm's perspective is the perspective of the work as a whole. He is the author of all three major books in Anselm: Basic Writings and the appendix, save Gaunilo's reply to the fool. His perspective is that of a Christian philosopher, one who believes by faith alone, but seeks to understand one's faith through the use of reason. Anselm believes that reason has extraordinary power, as evidenced by his complex and dense reasoning about extremely abstract and esoteric topics. He is a committed orthodoxy Christian of the eleventh century, believing fervently that God exists, possesses the properties typically attributed to Him by Christians, that God is a trinity and that the second person of the Trinity died on the Cross for the sins of all humans, who can take part in his atoning sacrifice through faith...