Acknowledgements
This book was born out of two conversations. The first was a conversation about Anselm and the Bible with Giles Gasper at Durham University while I was a timorous undergraduate. Without that conversation, and without his encouragement, collegiality and considerable intellectual generosity, this book would not have been written (or, at least, it would not have been written by me).
In helping to bring this project to term, no-one deserves greater thanks than my doctoral supervisor, Anna Sapir Abulafia. As well as her own scholarly excellence, it has been her mentorship, both professional and personal, which has given me the confidence to find my own voice as a scholar. For this, and for her faith in me, I cannot thank her enough. Heartfelt thanks also go to Sarah Foot and Michael Bentley for many years of kindness and encouragement, and to Lydia Schumacher for urging me on when this project, and my academic aspirations, were both still only embryonic.
The generous-spirited community of Anselm scholars, particularly members and friends of the International Association of Anselm Studies, have offered a collegial and constructive environment in which many of these ideas were tested in various stages of infancy. For fruitful conversations and suggestions, I am grateful to Fr Hugh Feiss, Ian Logan, Katherin Rogers, and the late Marcia Colish. It is a matter of deep regret to me that I can no longer thank Richard Campbell for his warm encouragement of me while I was a doctoral student; I hope he knows now how much his kindness meant to me. I am indebted to Margot Fassler, David Hiley, Samu Niskanen and the late Richard Sharpe for valuable guidance concerning Anselm’s libraries and the Bibles he might have known, and to the two readers who offered very helpful feedback on this book during the reviewing stage.
This project grew into a book at the University of Oxford under the guidance and mentorship of many colleagues in the Faculty of Theology and Religion and at Christ Church, particularly Bill Wood, Sarah Apetrei, Kirsten MacFarlane and Mark Edwards. At Blackfriars Hall I found an intellectual and spiritual home, and my heartfelt gratitude goes to the community of Dominican friars, students and staff who gave me a place to belong. Particular thanks are owing to Fr Richard Conrad, whose open-handedness with his extraordinary wealth of knowledge saved an earlier draft of my chapter on Liturgies from more than one howler.
Many friends and family members who have accompanied me from long before this project’s conception have now learned more about Anselm than they ever wished to. Stephan J. Hecht was a fellow-traveller on a path that has been intellectual, spiritual, and, for me, lifechanging: thank you. Stuart Andrews has been a stalwart friend from the very beginning. For faithful allyship, tireless cheerleading and many monk-related jokes, my love and thanks go to Anna Bennett and Sarah Mason, my sisters, and Daisy-Rose Srblin and Elizabeth Stevens, my sisters in all but name. To Elizabeth Hajós I owe many answers to prayer. To Oliver Keenan I owe more than I can say.
The second conversation from which this book was born is the lifelong dialogue which my parents, Geoff and Jo Cresswell, have had with the Word of God. Apart from their unfailing support of my pursuit of an academic path, and the generosity which made that pursuit possible (a generosity which has included some truly heroic feats of formatting), it has been their relationship with the Bible which has supplied some of the crucial coordinates for my curiosity about Anselm’s. Quite simply, overhearing their conversation with scripture has helped me better understand his. This book is dedicated to them.