Unit information: The Theology of St Anselm of Canterbury in 2014/15

Unit name	The Theology of St Anselm of Canterbury
Unit code	THRS30109
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Crisp
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Religion and Theology
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

St Anselm of Canterbury was one of the fountainheads of western theology and a father of medieval scholasticism. This course requires students to read through all his major texts in translation. It offers a chance to engage with the philosophical and theological issues Anselm's work raises, from the existence and nature of God through the doctrines of Trinity, Incarnation and Atonement, to the vexed question of divine foreknowledge and human freedom.

Aims:

• To introduce students to one of the key thinkers in western theology.

• To engage with the primary textual material of St Anselm.

• To enable students to think through some of the central doctrines in Christian theology through interaction with one of the great dogmaticians of the western tradition.

• To enable students to scrutinize St Anselms work as a species of perfect being theology.

• To consider connections between St Anselms work and contemporary analytic philosophical theology.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the unit students will be expected to have:

• To have a grasp of central themes in St Anselms thought.

• To have read and discussed key primary texts.

• To have interacted with St Anselms thought with a view to its significance and ongoing importance as a resource for contemporary constructive philosophical theology.

• To have considered some of the important connections between St Anselms work and contemporary analytic philosophical theology.

Teaching Information

• One 1 hour lecture per week

• One 1 hour seminar per week based on primary texts.

Assessment Information

• One 2,000 word essay (formative).

• One 3,000 word essay (summative) = 100%

Reading and References

• St Anselm of Canterbury, The Major Works, eds. Brian Davies and G. R. Evans (OUP, 1998). REQUIRED TEXT.

• Anselm, Great Medieval Thinkers Series, by Thomas Williams and Sandra Visser (OUP, 2009).

• Anselm of Canterbury, G. R. Evans (London: Continuum, 1989).

• The Cambridge Companion to Anselm of Canterbury, ed. Brian Davies and Brian Leftow (CUP, 2005).