On the Profit of Believing

Contents

Reading pages: 1–13 · 14–27 · 28–36

1. 1Augustine distinguishes the heretic from the one who believes heretics and explains that he writes to his friend Honoratus about finding the truth.
2. 2Augustine states his aim: to show that the Manichaeans wrongly attack Catholics for believing before understanding, and recalls how their promise of pure reason drew him and Honoratus.
3. 3Augustine rejects the Manichaean saying that the light has left those who abandon them, pointing out that he lived worldly while among them and austerely now.
4. 4Augustine explains that the Manichaeans win the unlearned by attacking the Old Testament and professes his sincere purpose and his own weakness in beholding the truth.
5. 5Augustine sets out four ways of expounding the Old Testament: history, aetiology, analogy, and allegory.
6. 6Christ used history (David and the loaves) and aetiology (Moses’ permission of divorce given for hardness of heart).
7. 7Augustine rejects the Manichaean claim that the Scriptures were corrupted and explains their rejection of Acts by their claim that the promised Spirit came through Mani.
8. 8Christ and Paul used allegory of the Old Testament: the sign of Jonah, the Exodus as a figure of the church, and Hagar and Sarah as the two testaments.
9. 9Augustine grants that the law was a temporary slavery for those not ruled by reason, but argues that grace removes not the Old Testament but the veil over its meaning.
10. 10Augustine distinguishes three kinds of error in reading, illustrated from Virgil, Lucretius, and Epicurus, and shows that understanding something true that the author did not mean does no harm.
11. 11Augustine sets out the corresponding cases of writer and reader and holds that the best case, where the reader understands exactly what a good writer meant, can in obscure matters only be believed, not known.
12. 12Augustine asks in which kind of error the Manichaeans place the Catholic church and affirms his belief that the Old Testament writers were great and divine and that the law was given by God.
13. 13Augustine declares the Old Testament wise and holy and argues that he and Honoratus rashly learned its meaning from its enemies, unlike the good will shown to Virgil.
14. 14All religion exists for the sake of the soul, which errs until it gains wisdom; Augustine invites Honoratus to seek the truth with him.
15. 15A seeker of religion should first examine the teachers who are most widely known and followed.
16. 16That the multitude throngs the churches is no reason to despise them, for in every discipline many pursue what only a few master.
17. 17Augustine rebukes those who judge the Scriptures without a teacher, noting that even pagan poets are read with guides and their offensive passages interpreted.
18. 18Nothing prevents anyone from examining the Catholic faith, which law permits and all ranks of society honour.
19. 19The inquiry should begin with the Catholic church, the largest Christian body, which alone is called Catholic by all.
20. 20Augustine recounts his doubts after leaving the Manichaeans, the influence of the bishop of Milan, and his decision to remain a catechumen, and urges Honoratus to follow Catholic teaching.
21. 21Heretics promise reason on obscure matters and fault the church for requiring belief, but true religion cannot be entered without belief and authority.
22. 22By comparing the studious with the eager and the curious with the interested, Augustine shows that believing differs from credulity.
23. 23Friendship requires belief, and since a teacher of religion must believe the learner’s sincerity, the learner should in turn believe the teacher.
24. 24Since few can reach God by reason, the church leads all by the safe way of faith first, and even the capable should walk it for the sake of others.
25. 25Augustine distinguishes understanding, believing, and opining, owed respectively to reason, authority, and error, and shows that belief on authority is praiseworthy while opinion is faulty.
26. 26Children must believe, without being able to know, who their parents are, which shows that human society depends on belief.
27. 27Since the foolish sin unless guided by the wise, they should obey wise men, above all in religion.
28. 28A foolish man cannot recognize a wise man, since wisdom can be recognized only by one who possesses it.
29. 29Only God can resolve this difficulty, and the search for religion requires belief in him from the start; hence the Catholic church asks for faith first.
30. 30The heretic who forbids belief cannot be approached except by the very faith he condemns.
31. 31Heretics who urge belief in Christ contradict their own rejection of belief, since faith in Christ rests on the report of the Catholic peoples, who should therefore be asked what Christ taught.
32. 32Those who refuse to believe Christ without reason are not Christians, for Christ himself sought faith through miracles, and so built the authority of the church.
33. 33Augustine urges prayer and obedience to the Catholic church and explains that the Wisdom of God took up a man, so that the foolish might have a wise man to imitate, and conquered fear by his death and resurrection.
34. 34Authority, working through miracles and the multitude of believers, prepares the foolish to be cleansed and to see the truth; the miracles of Christ were done so that such authority might be established.
35. 35Seeing the moral fruit of the church, secured by divine providence, one should not hesitate to embrace the Catholic church, whose authority descends from the apostolic see through the succession of bishops.
36. 36Augustine urges Honoratus to entrust himself to Catholic teachers and to pray, rejects the Manichaean account of evil and their charges against the Old Testament, and closes the book.