On Christian Teaching (On Christian Doctrine)

by Augustine of Hippo

things and to signs,

first book he treats of things,

enjoyed,

u...

use and ...

only object which ought to be enjoyed is ...

objects, except god, are for use;

two things

mode of ascertaining the proper meaning,

mode of making known t...

There are signs of another kind, those which are never employed except as signs: for example, words.

There are some things, then, which are to be enjoyed, others which are to be used, others still which enjoy and use. Those things which are objects of enjoyment make us happy. Those things which are objects of use assist, and (so to speak) support us in our efforts after happiness, so that we can attain the things that make us happy and rest in them. We ourselves, again, who enjoy and use these things, being placed among both kinds of objects, if we set ourselves to enjoy those which we ought to use, are hindered in our course, and sometimes even led away from it;

getting entangled in the love of lower gratifications,

For to enjoy a thing is to rest with satisfaction in it for its own sake. To use, on the other hand, is to employ whatever means are at one's disposal to obtain what one desires, if it is a proper object of desire; for an

unlawful use ought rather to be called an abuse.

this world must be used, not enjoyed, that so the invisible things of God may be clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,

Trinity, one Being,

common to all who enjoy Him,

same eternity, the same unchangeableness, the same majesty, the same power.

unity, in the Son equality, in the Holy Spirit the harmony of unity and equality;

three att...

their thought takes the form of an endeavor to reach the conception of a nature, than which nothing more excellent or more exalted exists.

since all who think about God think of Him as living, they only can form any conception of Him that is not absurd and unworthy who think of Him as life itself;

Now, no one is so egregiously silly as to ask, "How do you know that a life of unchangeable wisdom is preferable to one of change?"

And thus men are driven back from their native land by the contrary blasts of evil habits, and pursue lower and less valuable objects in preference to that which they own to be more excellent and more worthy.

our duty fully to enjoy the truth which lives unchangeably, and since the triune God takes counsel in this truth for the things which He has made, the soul must be purified that it may have power to perceive that light, and to rest in it when it is perceived.

yet our thought does not lose itself in the sound, but remains complete in itself, and takes the form of speech without being modified in its own nature by the change: so the Divine Word, though suffering no change of nature, yet became flesh, that He might dwell among us.

The disease was brought in through a woman's corrupted soul: the remedy came through a woman's virgin body.

the keys to His Church, that whatsoever it should bind on earth might be bound in heaven, and whatsoever it should loose on earth might be, loosed in heaven;

conformed to the truth,

ourselves. For a great thing truly is man, made after the image and similitude of God, not as respects the mortal body in which he is clothed, but as respects the rational soul by which he is exalted in honor above the beasts.

we are commanded to love one another: but it is a question whether man is to be loved by man for his own sake, or for the sake of something else. If it is for his own sake, we enjoy him; if it is for the sake of something else, we use him. It seems to me, then, that he is to be loved for the sake of something else. For if a thing is to be loved for its own sake, then in the enjoyment of it consists a happy life, the hope of which at least, if not yet the reality, is our comfort in the present time. But a curse is pronounced on him who places his hope in man. [Jer. 17. 5.]

Neither ought any one to have joy in himself,

"Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself;" but, "Thou shall love God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind:" [Matt. 22. 37-39. Cf. Lev. 19. 18; Deut. 6. 5.]

Focus on that which edifies

Those things which are objects of use are not all, however, to be loved, but those only which are either united with us in a common relation to God, such as a man or an angel, or are so related to us as to need the goodness of God through our instrumentality, such as the body.

four kinds of things that are to be loved,—first, that which is above us; second, ourselves; third, that which is on a level with us; fourth, that which is beneath us,—no precepts need be given about the second and fourth of these.

inherent in the sinful soul to desire above all things, and to claim as due to itself, that which is properly due to God only.

Those, on the other hand, who do this in a perverse spirit, make war upon their own body as if it were a natural enemy. And in this matter they are led astray by a mistaken interpretation of what they read: "The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other."[Gal. 5. 17.]

himself. For that he does love himself, and does desire to do good to himself, nobody but a fool would doubt.

Seeing, then, that there is no need of a command that every man should love himself and his own body,—seeing, that is, that we love ourselves, and what is beneath us but connected with us, through a law of nature which has never been violated, and which is common to us with the beasts (for even the beasts love themselves and their own bodies),—it only remained necessary to lay injunctions upon us in regard to God above us, and our neighbor beside us.

No sinner is to be loved as a sinner; and every man is to be loved as a man for God's sake; but God is to be loved for His own sake.

you are to pay special regard to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstance, are brought into closer connection with you.

We ought to desire, however, that they should all join with us in loving God, and all the assistance that we either, give them or accept from them should tend to that one end.

And hence it is that we love even our enemies. For we do not fear them, seeing they cannot take away from us what we love; but we pity them rather, because the more they hate us the more are they separated from Him whom we love.

nobody was neighbor to this man except him who took pity upon him

offices of mercy is by right called a neighbor, it is manifest that the command to love our neighbor embraces the holy angels also, seeing that so great offices of mercy have been performed by them on our behalf,

God does not leave the mercy we show to him who needs it to go without reward.

The whole temporal dispensation for our salvation, therefore, was framed by the providence of God that we might know this truth and be able to act upon it; and we ought to use that dispensation, not with such love and delight as if it were a good to rest in, but with a transient feeling rather, such as we have towards the road, or carriages, or other things that are merely means.

Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this twofold love of God and our neighbor,

does not yet understand them as he ought.