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PRAYING FOR UNDERSTANDING: READING ANSELM THROUGH WITTGENSTEIN 1
Author(s) -
KALLENBERG BRAD J.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
modern theology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.144
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1468-0025
pISSN - 0266-7177
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0025.2004.00266.x
Subject(s) - philosophy , prayer , epistemology , argument (complex analysis) , reading (process) , context (archaeology) , ontological argument , theology , philosophy of religion , linguistics , medicine , history , archaeology
If Wittgenstein is correct to assert that practice gives words their sense, then it is logically possible that an understanding of the ontological “argument” Anselm presents in Proslogion requires some level of practical participation in prayer. A close inspection of Anselm's historical context shows that the conceptual distance we stand from him may be too great to be overcome by mere spectatorship. Rather, participation in this case likely requires of the modern reader a reproduction of Anselm's conduct in prayer. If so, Anselm's case falsifies, and thus warrants our resistance of, the commonly presumed disconnect between knowledge and practice.