Anselm of Canterbury

Lived

1033–1109

Era

Medieval

Where

Bec, Normandy, and Canterbury

Tradition

Roman Catholic

Faith seeking understanding

An Italian who became abbot of Bec in Normandy and then, unwillingly, archbishop of Canterbury, where he spent much of his tenure in exile quarrelling with two kings over whether the crown could invest bishops.

Why it matters

He argued for God's existence from the idea of God alone — the ontological argument, which has been refuted and revived continuously for nine hundred years. His Why God Became Man recast the atonement in terms of satisfaction owed to divine honour, displacing the older ransom account and setting the terms the Reformation would argue within. His programme, faith seeking understanding, is the founding statement of scholastic method.

All the figures, from the apostolic age to the present, or the timeline they stand in.