On Christian Doctrine

Contents

Reading pages: 1.0–1.21 · 1.22–1.39 · 1.40–2.14 · 2.15–2.27 · 2.28–3.1 · 3.2–3.17 · 3.18–3.33 · 3.34–4.5 · 4.6–4.12 · 4.13–4.20 · 4.21–4.28 · 4.29–4.31

1. 1.0Augustine defends the usefulness of giving rules for interpreting Scripture against those who will not understand them, those who cannot apply them, and those who claim to need only a divine gift.
2. 1.1The work has two parts, discovering the meaning of Scripture and expressing it, and Augustine trusts God to multiply what he shares as he multiplied the loaves.
3. 1.2Augustine distinguishes things from signs: every sign is a thing, but not every thing is a sign.
4. 1.3Things are divided into those to be enjoyed, those to be used, and ourselves, who enjoy and use.
5. 1.4Enjoying is loving something for its own sake, using is referring it to what we love; like travelers going home, we must use this world and not enjoy it.
6. 1.5The proper object of enjoyment is the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each God and together one God, distinct yet equal.
7. 1.6God is beyond words, so that even calling him “unspeakable” says something, yet he accepts human speech in his praise.
8. 1.7Everyone who thinks of God, whether in bodily or in spiritual terms, thinks of him as that than which nothing is better.
9. 1.8Reflection rises from bodies to life, from life to intelligence, and from changeable intelligence to unchangeable Wisdom, which is God.
10. 1.9The superiority of unchangeable Wisdom is evident to all; those who do not see it are blind, and those who see and flee it are weakened by bad habits.
11. 1.10To enjoy God the soul must be cleansed, a journey made not by place but by good desire and conduct.
12. 1.11Wisdom became man to give us an example of life, and so is both our homeland and the way to it.
13. 1.12Wisdom, present everywhere, came to us not by moving through space but by appearing in mortal flesh to those who could not know God.
14. 1.13The incarnation is compared to a thought taking the form of speech without ceasing to be itself.
15. 1.14Christ heals humanity like a physician, using contraries (humility for pride) and likes (born of a woman, a mortal for mortals).
16. 1.15Christ's resurrection, ascension, and coming judgment strengthen hope, and the gift of the Spirit is a foretaste of the reward to come.
17. 1.16The Church is Christ's body and bride, which he purifies through trials to join to himself forever.
18. 1.17Christ made himself the way home and, by his cross, removed the barrier of sin for those who turn back.
19. 1.18Christ gave the Church the keys to bind and loose, so that those who believe and amend are forgiven within it.
20. 1.19As repentance is a death of the soul leading to renewal, so bodily death will be followed by a better, incorruptible resurrection body.
21. 1.20Those who do not die to the world will rise only to punishment.
22. 1.21Faith holds that neither soul nor body is wholly destroyed, but the wicked rise to punishment and the godly to eternal life.
23. 1.22Only God is to be enjoyed; we should love ourselves and our neighbors for God's sake, directing all love toward the love of God.
24. 1.23Four things are to be loved, God, ourselves, our neighbor, and our body; no command is needed to love ourselves and our bodies, though self-love that seeks to dominate is really hatred.
25. 1.24No one truly hates his body; ascetic discipline rightly aims to subdue bad habits, not to destroy the body, as Paul's words on the flesh and spirit show.
26. 1.25People must be taught the right way to love themselves and their bodies, though one may love something more than bodily health.
27. 1.26Since we naturally love ourselves and our bodies, the commandments concern love of God and neighbor, which together include all that is to be loved.
28. 1.27Just living requires ordered love: God above all, others for God's sake, and our neighbor more than our own body.
29. 1.28All are to be loved equally, but since we cannot help everyone, we should help first those whom circumstances bind most closely to us.
30. 1.29As a theater fan wants everyone to love his favorite actor, we should want all to love God with us, and so we love even our enemies.
31. 1.30The parable of the Good Samaritan shows that every human being is our neighbor, and so are the angels, and in a sense Christ himself.
32. 1.31Since God needs nothing from us, he does not enjoy us but, in a sense, uses us.
33. 1.32God's “use” of us serves our good and reflects his goodness; our reward for mercy is to enjoy God and one another in him.
34. 1.33Holy men and angels point us beyond themselves to God; we may enjoy one another only “in the Lord,” and properly enjoy only the Trinity.
35. 1.34Christ in the flesh is the way, which we must pass through without clinging even to the temporal things he did for us, to reach God himself.
36. 1.35The sum of Book 1: the fulfillment of all Scripture is love of God and neighbor, and the temporal dispensation is to be used as a road to God.
37. 1.36Whoever does not draw love of God and neighbor from Scripture has not understood it; one who misreads the author but builds up love errs harmlessly, yet should be corrected.
38. 1.37Rash misreadings can lead one to oppose Scripture itself, undermining faith and so love; faith, hope, and love are what all knowledge serves.
39. 1.38Faith will give way to sight and hope to possession, but love will grow, since eternal goods, unlike temporal ones, surpass all expectation when attained.
40. 1.39One firmly grounded in faith, hope, and love needs the Scriptures only to teach others; love, the greatest, will remain forever.
41. 1.40With love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith as the goal, the reader may approach Scripture confidently; the next book treats signs.
42. 2.1A sign is a thing that brings something else to mind; signs are either natural, like smoke for fire, or given.
43. 2.2Given signs are those used intentionally to convey one's thoughts; Scripture's signs come to us through its human writers.
44. 2.3Human signs mostly address sight and hearing, and words are by far the most important, since they can express all other signs.
45. 2.4Writing was invented to preserve words, but since Babel different nations have different languages and scripts.
46. 2.5Scripture began in one language and spread through translations; its readers seek the thoughts of its writers and through them the will of God.
47. 2.6Scripture's obscurities were provided by God to humble pride and make discovery delightful, as the figurative reading of Song 4:2 shows; nearly everything obscure is stated plainly elsewhere.
48. 2.7Augustine sets out seven steps toward wisdom: fear, piety, knowledge (the study of Scripture), fortitude, counsel, purity of heart, and wisdom.
49. 2.8Augustine advises reading all the canonical books first, ranks disputed books by how many and how weighty the churches are that accept them, and lists the canon of the Old and New Testaments.
50. 2.9The student should first know the books, then master what is plainly taught about faith and life, and then use clear passages to explain obscure ones.
51. 2.10Scripture is not understood when its signs are unknown or ambiguous; signs may be literal or figurative.
52. 2.11Knowledge of Hebrew and Greek is the remedy for unknown literal signs, especially because of the many varying Latin translations.
53. 2.12Comparing Latin translations can clarify difficult passages, as with Isa 58:7 and 7:9, and can expose mistranslations arising from ambiguous Greek words.
54. 2.13Knowledge of the original languages or very literal translations helps detect errors; mere solecisms and barbarisms in the Latin Bible matter little unless they create ambiguity.
55. 2.14Unknown words and idioms are learned from speakers, study of languages, comparison of translations, and wide reading, after first correcting the manuscripts.
56. 2.15Augustine prefers the Itala among Latin versions, defends the authority of the Septuagint for the Old Testament even where it differs from the Hebrew, and has the New Testament corrected from the Greek.
57. 2.16Figurative signs require knowledge of languages (such as the meaning of Hebrew names) and of things, including the natures of animals, stones, and plants, and of numbers and music.
58. 2.17Varro explains the nine Muses not as daughters of Jupiter but as three sets of three statues, reflecting the three kinds of sound.
59. 2.18Christians should not reject music or letters because of pagan associations, for all truth belongs to God wherever it is found.
60. 2.19Pagan learning is of two kinds, human institutions and observations of what exists or is divinely instituted; the former is partly superstitious.
61. 2.20Superstitious institutions include idolatry, magic, divination, amulets, and countless empty omens, which Augustine illustrates with examples and a joke of Cato.
62. 2.21Astrologers who predict human actions from the stars are also superstitious; the stars are God's creatures, named arbitrarily by human beings.
63. 2.22The case of twins like Esau and Jacob, born under the same constellation but with very different lives, refutes astrology.
64. 2.23Divination sometimes succeeds through demons' deceptions, which God permits as judgment; all such arts are partnerships with demons to be shunned.
65. 2.24Superstitious signs have force only by convention, like the different meanings of letters and words in Greek and Latin, through a covenant with demons.
66. 2.25Non-superstitious human conventions, such as dress, money, and measures, are useful and should not be shunned by Christians, unlike the merely superfluous ones like theatrical signs and fables.
67. 2.26Useful human conventions such as letters, languages, and shorthand should be learned insofar as they serve greater ends.
68. 2.27Knowledge of what happened or what God established is not a human institution; it concerns either the senses or reason.
69. 2.28History, though learned outside the Church, helps in understanding Scripture, as with Christ's age and Ambrose's argument that Plato borrowed from the Hebrew Scriptures rather than Christ from Plato.
70. 2.29Natural knowledge of places, plants, and animals is useful if not turned to superstition; astronomy is legitimate but of little use for Scripture and close to astrology.
71. 2.30The practical arts should be known lightly, enough to understand Scripture's figures drawn from them.
72. 2.31Logic is very useful for Scripture if one avoids sophistry; valid inference can be learned outside the Church, but the truth of propositions is found in Scripture.
73. 2.32The rules of valid inference are discovered, not invented, as Paul's argument for the resurrection shows.
74. 2.33Valid reasoning can lead from false premises to a false conclusion, and invalid reasoning can link true propositions, as examples about a snail and an orator show.
75. 2.34Knowing the rules of inference differs from knowing truths; knowing the truth of the resurrection is better than knowing logic.
76. 2.35The rules of definition and division are true and discovered, not invented, even when applied to falsehoods.
77. 2.36The rules of eloquence are true and morally neutral; only their misuse is blameworthy.
78. 2.37Rhetoric helps in expressing, logic in understanding, but people often grasp truths more easily than the rules about them, and such learning can make one deceitful or proud.
79. 2.38The truths of number are discovered and unchangeable; whoever learns them without rising to praise the God from whom all truth comes may seem learned but is not wise.
80. 2.39Of pagan learning only history, the useful arts, logic, and mathematics are useful; Augustine proposes reference works on the places, creatures, and numbers mentioned in Scripture.
81. 2.40What is true in pagan philosophy, especially Platonism, should be taken for Christian use, as Israel took the Egyptians' gold, as Cyprian, Lactantius, and others did.
82. 2.41The student must remember that knowledge puffs up while love builds up; the Passover hyssop signifies humility, and the cross's dimensions describe the Christian life.
83. 2.42All useful pagan knowledge is small compared to Scripture, where everything harmful is condemned and everything useful is found, and more besides.
84. 3.1The student, prepared in piety, languages, knowledge of things, and corrected texts, now turns to ambiguous signs, literal or figurative.
85. 3.2Ambiguities of punctuation are resolved by the rule of faith, then by the context, and where neither decides, the reader may choose, as examples from John 1:1, Phil 1:22–24, and 2 Cor 7:1–2 show.
86. 3.3Ambiguities of pronunciation are resolved in the same way, as examples from Rom 8:33–34, Rom 9:30, John 1:46, Ps 139:15, and Gal 5:21 show.
87. 3.4Other ambiguities in literal words are resolved by the context, comparison of translations, or the original language, as with 1 Thess 3:7 and 1 Cor 15:31.
88. 3.5Taking figurative expressions literally, such as “Sabbath” or “sacrifice,” is a carnal slavery of the soul that mistakes signs for things.
89. 3.6The Jews' observance of signs bound them to the one God, though many rejected Christ for disregarding them; those who believed formed the Jerusalem church, which was ready for the Spirit.
90. 3.7Pagan allegorical interpretations of idols, such as Neptune as the sea, merely redirect worship to creatures and are no better than idolatry.
91. 3.8Christian liberty freed Israelites by interpreting their useful signs and freed Gentiles by abolishing their useless ones.
92. 3.9Whoever understands the signs God instituted is free; since Christ's resurrection the Church has a few easy and meaningful signs, baptism and the Eucharist.
93. 3.10Whatever in Scripture cannot literally refer to good conduct or true faith is figurative; Scripture commands only love and condemns only desire, and readers must not judge it by their own customs.
94. 3.11Harsh sayings in Scripture serve to destroy the reign of desire; if plainly expressed they are literal, as in Rom 2:5–9, though some, like Jer 1:10, are figurative.
95. 3.12Seemingly shameful acts of holy persons in Scripture are figurative or must be judged by the customs of their time, such as the patriarchs' polygamy for the sake of offspring; what matters is not the thing used but the lust of the user.
96. 3.13What good men do in conformity with the customs of their time is to be referred to usefulness and beneficence, literally or, for the prophets, figuratively.
97. 3.14Varying customs do not prove that there is no justice, for the Golden Rule holds for all nations.
98. 3.15Figurative passages should be studied until their interpretation leads to the reign of love; passages that already do so literally are not figurative.
99. 3.16A precept that seems to command wrongdoing or forbid kindness is figurative, as with eating Christ's flesh, heaping coals of fire, and losing one's life.
100. 3.17Precepts for lower stages of life, such as marriage, are not figurative just because some follow a higher calling; some commands apply to all, others to particular kinds of persons.
101. 3.18Practices blameless in Old Testament times, such as polygamy, may not be adopted now; what matters is love or lust in the user, and the patriarchs used marriage only for procreation.
102. 3.19The lustful cannot believe that the patriarchs used several wives temperately, just as the proud cannot believe that the saints are unmoved by praise.
103. 3.20As the apostles were unmoved by praise and blame, so the patriarchs were not ruled by lust; those who doubt it would hate a son who violated their wives.
104. 3.21David's grief for Absalom and his repentance over Bathsheba show the patriarchs' temperance with women, whereas Solomon was ruled by lust.
105. 3.22Old Testament deeds foreign to Christian practice, though praised, should be understood figuratively and not imitated.
106. 3.23The recorded sins of great men warn the reader against pride and self-righteousness.
107. 3.24The first task is to determine whether an expression is literal or figurative, using the rules already given.
108. 3.25The same thing may signify contrary or different things in different passages, as leaven, the lion, the serpent, bread, and water show.
109. 3.26Obscure figures are explained by plainer passages, though the same image may carry several meanings, as with the shield.
110. 3.27When a passage admits several meanings, each confirmed by other Scriptures and agreeing with the faith, there is no danger, for the Holy Spirit foresaw and provided them, though the reader should seek the author's intention.
111. 3.28Meanings supported only by reason, not by other Scripture, are dangerous; it is safer to settle disputed interpretations by Scripture itself.
112. 3.29The biblical writers used all the rhetorical tropes, such as metaphor, catachresis, and irony, which even ordinary speech uses; knowing them helps resolve passages that would be absurd if taken literally.
113. 3.30Augustine introduces the seven rules of Tyconius, a Donatist, as useful but not all-sufficient keys to Scripture, to be read with caution.
114. 3.31Tyconius's first rule: Scripture sometimes speaks of Christ and the Church as one person, passing between head and body.
115. 3.32Tyconius's second rule concerns the mixed Church of true members and hypocrites, about whom Scripture sometimes speaks as one body.
116. 3.33Tyconius's third rule, on the promises and the Law, is really a great question; he erred in thinking faith comes from us and not from God, as the Pelagian controversy has made clear.
117. 3.34Tyconius's fourth rule, on species and genus: Scripture passes from a part to the whole, as Ezekiel's prophecy to Israel passes to the spiritual Israel of all nations, the Church.
118. 3.35Tyconius's fifth rule, on times, works by synecdoche (as with the six or eight days before the Transfiguration and Christ's three days in the tomb) and by symbolic numbers.
119. 3.36Tyconius's sixth rule, recapitulation: Scripture sometimes returns to earlier events, as in the planting of paradise, the dispersion of nations before Babel, and Christ's warning about Lot's wife.
120. 3.37Tyconius's seventh rule concerns the devil and his body; all the rules but one concern figurative expression, and students of Scripture must above all pray for understanding.
121. 4.1Augustine begins Book 4, on setting forth what has been understood, and warns that he will not give the rules of secular rhetoric.
122. 4.2Since rhetoric can serve falsehood, the defenders of truth should not be left without eloquence.
123. 4.3Eloquence is better acquired young by reading and imitating eloquent writers, including Christian ones, than by studying rhetorical rules.
124. 4.4The Christian teacher must teach the good, refute error, win over his hearers, and, as needed, narrate, prove, and move.
125. 4.5Wisdom matters more than eloquence; the preacher speaks wisely in proportion to his understanding of Scripture, whose words he should use, and should learn eloquence from wise and eloquent Christian writers.
126. 4.6The authors of Scripture are both wise and eloquent, with an eloquence fitting their divine authority, which serves wisdom without showing itself off.
127. 4.7Augustine shows the natural eloquence of Scripture through Paul (Rom 5:3–5; 2 Cor 11:16–30) and Amos (6:1–6), whose rhetorical figures serve wisdom without being sought.
128. 4.8Preachers should not imitate Scripture's purposeful obscurity but strive above all to be understood.
129. 4.9Very difficult matters should rarely be preached to the people, but in books and conversations the teacher should explain them clearly to willing learners.
130. 4.10The teacher should seek clarity above polish, using even popular forms like ossum if needed, and in preaching should watch the congregation and move on once they understand.
131. 4.11Teaching eloquence makes the hidden clear; good minds love truth more than words, though, as with food, truth must often be seasoned for most people.
132. 4.12Following Cicero, the speaker should teach, delight, and move; teaching is necessary, delighting attractive, and moving decisive for action.
133. 4.13When urging action, the preacher must not only teach and delight but move his hearers, since understanding and pleasure do not by themselves produce consent.
134. 4.14Charm must not make the Church applaud falsehood, as Jeremiah warns; excessive ornament displeases serious hearers, as Cyprian's early style, which he later abandoned, shows.
135. 4.15The Christian speaker must rely on prayer more than skill, praying before he preaches, while also preparing diligently, trusting the Spirit to speak through him.
136. 4.16That the Spirit makes teachers does not make instruction in teaching unnecessary, as Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus show; human teaching, like medicine, works only when God gives the effect.
137. 4.17Augustine connects Cicero's three aims of speech, to teach, delight, and move, with the three styles, subdued, temperate, and grand.
138. 4.18Unlike legal cases, everything in Christian teaching concerns eternal salvation and so is great, even small matters, as Paul's treatment of lawsuits and Christ's cup of cold water show.
139. 4.19Great matters are spoken in the subdued style when teaching, the temperate when praising or blaming, and the grand when moving the unwilling, as with teaching the Trinity, praising God, and condemning idolatry.
140. 4.20Augustine illustrates the subdued style (Gal 4 and 3), the temperate style (1 Tim 5; Rom 12–13), with remarks on prose rhythm, and the grand style (2 Cor 6; Rom 8; Gal 4).
141. 4.21Augustine illustrates the three styles from Cyprian and Ambrose: the subdued in Cyprian on the eucharistic cup and Ambrose on the Holy Spirit, the temperate in their praises of virginity, and the grand in their attacks on cosmetics.
142. 4.22The three styles should be mixed, and the grand style especially should alternate with the others like the tide.
143. 4.23Each style has its place within the others: temperate openings for grand speech, subdued reasoning for difficult questions, and plain passages to set off ornament.
144. 4.24The grand style is shown not by applause but by tears and changed lives, as when Augustine's preaching ended an annual blood feud at Caesarea in Mauretania.
145. 4.25Eloquence aims to persuade; the temperate style's delight should not be an end in itself but should serve to win people to the good.
146. 4.26The three aims, understanding, pleasure, and obedience, apply to all three styles, not one aim to each style.
147. 4.27The preacher's life gives his words more weight than eloquence; the wicked may teach truth from the chair of Moses, but a good life persuades far more.
148. 4.28The good teacher prefers truth to words, avoids quarreling over words while refuting error, and should speak wisely if he cannot speak eloquently.
149. 4.29Those who cannot compose may preach others' sermons without blame, for God's word belongs to those who obey it; a bad man who speaks well speaks words not truly his own.
150. 4.30Every preacher, whether speaking or dictating his own words or others', should pray before and give thanks after, as Esther prayed before speaking to the king.
151. 4.31Augustine concludes, thanking God that he has described not himself but what the Christian teacher ought to be.