This is a substantial collection of papers, which derives from the conference held in 2009 to commemorate the nine hundredth anniversary of Anselm's death. It is a pity that no one contributed an essay on the problem of the origin of the soul, which Eadmer says preoccupied Anselm on his death-bed and which he wanted to resolve before he died. However, the Editors begin their Introduction by noting this episode as an indication of Anselm's own enduring interest in resolving such theological problems even very late in life. They assemble the evidences that he was less interested in seeking any memorial (such as the Life he discovered Eadmer was writing). They describe the immediacy of his legacy and the continuing influence which is still prompting fresh study and bringing some new names as authors into this collection.
The papers are arranged in topical groupings. A study of the correspondence between Anselm and Henry I's Queen, Matilda, is a reminder of the social intimacy of the leading figures of a realm in which the politics of troubled Church-state relations were to become fierce. Samu Niskanen provides an invaluable review of Schmitt's findings about the evolution of the letter collection. There is a study of the implications of Anselm's changing standing in the move from Bec to Canterbury and a useful enquiry by Sally Vaughn into the subsequent careers of the known students at Bec.
From these articles on the various contemporary ‘communities’ to which Anselm belonged, the collection moves on to ‘twelfth century perspectives’, concentrating on topics of theology and intellectual history, then to ‘thirteenth and fourteenth century perspectives’, including a valuable analysis by Michael Robson of the process by which interest in Anselm as an authority moved out of the cloister into the universities.
Part Four includes two papers on ‘vernacular visions’, containing studies of the Middle English tradition. With Part V the collection moves into the twentieth century, where there are eight papers. Several of these deal with the way modern thinkers (including Karl Rahner; Hans Blumenberg; Hans Urs von Balthasar; Michael Ramsay; Jean-Paul Sartre) have engaged with the thought of Anselm. Others make fresh attacks on problems which interested Anselm: God's goodness (Marilyn McCord Adams), arguments for the existence of God (Martin Lembke). Sara L. Uckelman contributes an important review of the legacy of the work of D.P.Henry in the reception of Anselm's logic.
It is difficult to form the contributions to a conference into a coherent volume. The papers included here have been selected from those presented and the authors given time to expand and develop them. The result includes some important items, though in terms of the proportion of topics covered, it leans towards Anselm's ‘legacy’ rather than adding to our understanding of Anselm in his times.
