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Title: Complete Philosophical and Theological Treatises of Anselm of Canterbury by Saint Anselm, Jasper Hopkins, Herbert Richardson ISBN: 0-938060-37-6 Publisher: Banning Press Pub. Date: October, 2000 Format: Hardcover List Price(USD): $11.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: One Heckuva Deal
Comment: There are two ways that you could rank this book, either on the basis of the content by Anselm or as a packaging of Anselm's writings. I'll talk about the latter. If you're at all interested in Anselm's thought, this book is a great deal. A hard-bound edition of all of Anselm's philosophical and theological treatises for eleven bucks? What's not to like? I haven't studied the translations in detail, but from glancing at them, they seem fine, and render Anselm into fairly clear English. This book also includes a short and useful introduction, which gives an overview of Anselm's life and works, reprinted from the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Rating: 4
Summary: Great translation, allows Anselm to speak
Comment: The main problem with translations, obviously, is that they all too often say more about the translator(s) than the work translated. The Jowett translations of Plato are cases in point, on the negative side, and Mitchell's translation of Rilke are another, on the positive side. This series of translations by Hopkins and Richardson fall decidedly into the positive side.

I personally have a love/hate relationship with the great saint of Canterbury. On the one hand, as a philosopher his works on ontology and the "proofs" of God, while ultimately refuted, nevertheless have served as fodder for nearly every thinker since his time. I am constantly amazed by his depth and committment to inquiry. Many have nuanced or adapted his arguments, particularly the (in)famous "ontological" proof, and Anselm to this day still enjoys a wide readership and is likely to remain popular, not only as history, but, like Plato, as a living intellectual force.

On the other hand, Anselm is responsible for bequeathing to the Christian world the feudal satisfaction theory of the atonement (Cur Deus Homo?, wonderfully presented in this translation). Anslem won the war with Abelard, and we inherited the God whose honor has to be satisfied. I dare say most Christians today have no idea that Anselm's theory was new in his day, and yet was so brilliant (in his day) that it has stood as our paradigm for the atonement ever since. There were myriad interpretations of the atonement before Anselm. Augustine would never had recognized Anselm's theory, committed as he was to a "ransom" theory, and Paul's mystical-communal "en ho christos" concept of the work of Christ certainly stands in contrast to Anselm's feudal monarchial view. Still, history and the church was with Anselm, so we today take for granted the satisfaction theory of Anselm. Sadly, the satisfaction theory is one of the most infortunate (to be kind) beliefs ever adopted by the Christian church.

Five stars for the translation, minus one because I cannot give even the mighty Anselm a perfect score. The message is more important than the medium, however satisfying the medium may be.