Volume 1, Number 1 (Fall 2003)
Anselm on God's Perfect Freedom
Katherin A. Rogers
University of Delaware
ABSTRACT
According to the Catechism, "...God created the world according to his wisdom.
It is not the product of any necessity whatever,...it proceeds from God's free will; he wanted to
make his creatures share in his being, wisdom, and goodness" (section 295). Anselm and Thomas Aquinas
offer significantly different analyses of divine freedom, especially freedom to create. Anselm holds
that God "must" do the best. From the perspective of divine creation, setting aside the impact of
creaturely free choices, ours is the best and only world God could actualize. Thomas holds that
God might have made other, better or worse worlds, or he might not have created at all. I argue
that Anselm's position accords better with the Catechism and is a more philosophically and religiously
adequate analysis of divine freedom.
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