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Anselm’s argument about God’s eternal timeless nature begins at the same point as his ontological argument: in the statement that God is a being greater than which nothing can be conceived. In the extracts below from Anselm’s Prosologion, I have placed the key comments in bold type. Notice that two things stem from God’s supreme greatness: God’s simplicity and his immutability. God’s simplicity doesn’t mean his stupidity, (!), rather it means God has no parts – he is wholly good, wholly wise, wholly unending all together and inseparably. God’s immutability means he cannot change from age to age, God is the same. How does this relate to God’s timeless quality? Well, if God had parts, he could exist as a temporal being and an atemporal being at the same time. But, says Anselm, this would mean God was less than supremely God (the maximally great being that defines who God is). Notice that, paradoxically, Christianity has argued that God has three parts, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three in one. Is Anselm departing from orthodox Christianity here? Maybe. Secondly, God is unchangeable (or immutable as Anselm describes him). This means he cannot enter into time because to do so would imply God could change the future. But God cannot change the future, because from God’s perspective outside time the future just is: it exists as a timeless present. Again this is paradoxical: God, so Christians argue, entered time in Jesus Christ. This has led Richard Swinburne among others to argue that Anselm’s account of the timeless God is unbiblical. PB

CHAPTER 2

And so, Lord, do you, who gives understanding to faith, give me, so far as you know it to be profitable, to understand that you are as we believe; and that you are that which we believe. And indeed, we believe that you are a being than which nothing greater can be conceived. Or is there no such nature, since the fool said in his heart, there is no God? But, at any rate, this very fool, when he hears of this being of which I speak—a being than which nothing greater can be conceived—understands what he hears, and what he understands is in his understanding; although he does not understand it to exist.

For, it is one thing for an object to be in the understanding, and another to understand that the object exists. When a painter first conceives of what he will afterwards perform, he has it in his understanding, but he does not yet understand it to be, because he has not yet performed it. But after he has made the painting, he both has it in his understanding, and he understands that it exists, because he has made it.

Hence, even the fool is convinced that something exists in the understanding, at least, than which nothing greater can be conceived. For, when he hears of this, he understands it. And whatever is understood, exists in the understanding. And assuredly that, than which nothing greater can be conceived, cannot exist in the understanding alone. For, suppose it exists in the understanding alone: then it can be conceived to exist in reality; which is greater.

Therefore, if that, than which nothing greater can be conceived, exists in the understanding alone, the very being, than which nothing greater can be conceived, is one, than which a greater can be conceived. But obviously this is impossible. Hence, there is no doubt that there exists a being, than which nothing greater can be conceived, and it exists both in the understanding and in reality.

CHAPTER 13

How he alone is uncircumscribed and eternal, although other spirits are uncircumscribed and eternal. —No place and time contain God. But he is himself everywhere and always. He alone not only does not cease to be, but also does not begin to be.

BUT everything that is in any way bounded by place or time is less than that which no law of place or time limits. Since, then, nothing is greater than you, no place or time contains you; but you are everywhere and always. And since this can be said of you alone, you alone are uncircumscribed and eternal. How is it, then, that other spirits also are said to be uncircumscribed and eternal?

Assuredly you are alone eternal; for you alone among all beings not only do not cease to be but also do not begin to be.

CHAPTER 18

God is life, wisdom, eternity, and every true good. –Whatever is composed of parts is not wholly one; it is capable, either in fact or in concept, of dissolution. In God wisdom, eternity, etc., are not parts, but one, and the very whole which God is, or unity itself, not even in concept divisible.

Assuredly you are life, you are wisdom, you are truth, you are goodness, you are blessedness, you are eternity, and you are every true good. Many are these attributes: my straitened understanding cannot see so many at one view, that it may be gladdened by all at once. How, then, O Lord, are you all these things? Are they parts of you, or is each one of these rather the whole, which you are? For, whatever is composed of parts is not altogether one, but is: in some sort plural, and diverse from itself; and either in fact or in concept is capable of dissolution. But these things are alien to you, than whom nothing better can be conceived of. Hence, there are no parts in you, Lord, nor are you more than one. But you are so truly a unitary being, and so identical with yourself, that in no respect are you unlike yourself; rather you are unity itself, indivisible by any conception. Therefore, life and wisdom and the rest are not parts of you, but all are one; and each of these is the whole, which you are, and which all the rest are.

In this way, then, it appears that you have no parts, and that your eternity, which you are, is nowhere and never a part of you or of your eternity. But everywhere you are as a whole, and your eternity exists as a whole forever.

CHAPTER 19

He does not exist in place or time, but all things exist in him.

BUT if through your eternity you have been, and are, and will be; and to have been is not to be destined to be; and to be is not to have been, or to be destined to be; how does your eternity exist as a whole forever? Or is it true that nothing of your eternity passes away, so that it is not now; and that nothing of it is destined to be, as if it were not yet?

You were not, then, yesterday, nor will you be to-morrow; but yesterday and to-day and to-morrow you are; or, rather, neither yesterday nor to-day nor to-morrow you are; but simply, you are, outside all time. For yesterday and to-day and to-morrow have no existence, except in time; but you, although nothing exists without you, nevertheless do not exist in space or time, but all things exist in you. For nothing contains you, but you contain all.

CHAPTER 20

He exists before all things and transcends all things, even the eternal things. —The eternity of God is present as a whole with him; while other things have not yet that part of their eternity which is still to be, and have no longer that part which is past.

HENCE, you do permeate and embrace all things. You are before all, and do transcend all. And, for sure, you are before all; for before they were made, you are. But how do you transcend all? In what way do you transcend those beings which will have no end? Is it because they cannot exist at all without you; while you are in no wise less, if they should return to nothingness? For so, in a certain sense, you do transcend them. Or, is it also because they can be conceived to have an end; but you by no means? For so they actually have an end, in a certain sense; but you, in no sense. And certainly, what in no sense has an end transcends what is ended in any sense. Or, in this way also do you transcend all things, even the eternal, because your eternity and theirs is present as a whole with you; while they have not yet that part of their eternity which is to come, just as they no longer have that part which is past? For so you do ever transcend them, since you are ever present with yourself, and since that to which they have not yet come is ever present with you.

CHAPTER 21

Is this the age of the age, or ages of ages? The eternity of God contains the ages of time themselves, and can be called the age of the age or ages of ages.

Is this, then, the age of the age, or ages of ages? For, as an age of time contains all temporal things, so your eternity contains even the ages of time themselves. And these are indeed an age, because of their indivisible unity; but ages, because of their endless immeasurability. And, although you are so great, O Lord, that all things are full of you, and exist in you; yet you are so without all space, that neither midst, nor half, nor any part, is in you.

CHAPTER 22

He alone is what he is and who be is. –All things need God for their being and their well-being.

THEREFORE, you alone, O Lord, are what you are; and you are he who you are. For, what is one thing in the whole and another in the parts, and in which there is any mutable element, is not altogether what it is. And what begins from non-existence, and can be conceived not to exist, and unless it subsists through something else, returns to non-existence; and what has a past existence, which is no longer, or a future existence, which is not yet, –this does not properly and absolutely exist.

But you are what you are, because, whatever you are at any time, or in any way, you are as a whole and forever. And you are he who you are, properly and simply; for you have neither a past existence nor a future, but only a present existence; nor can you be conceived as at any time non-existent. But you are life, and light, and wisdom, and blessedness, and many goods of this nature. And yet you are only one supreme good; you are all-sufficient to yourself, and need none; and you are he whom all things need for their existence and wellbeing.

St Anselm (1033-1109)