On Christian Teaching (On Christian Doctrine)

by Augustine of Hippo

Thus, the truth of a statement stands on its own merits; the validity of an inference depends on the statement or the admission of the man with whom one is arguing.

34. IT IS ONE THING TO KNOW THE LAWS OF INFERENCE, ANOTHER TO KNOW THE TRUTH OF OPINIONS.

Therefore it is one thing to know the laws of inference, and another to know the truth of opinions.

In regard to the truth of opinions, however, we must consider propositions as they stand by themselves, and not in their connection with one another; but when propositions that we are not sure about are joined by a valid inference to propositions that are true and certain, they themselves, too, necessarily become certain.

For although poets have applied it to their fictions, and false philosophers, or even heretics—that is, false Christians—to their erroneous doctrines, that is no reason why it should be false, for example, that neither in definition, nor in division, nor in partition, is anything to be included that does not pertain to the matter in hand, nor anything to be omitted that does.

But when the student of the Holy Scriptures, prepared in the way I have indicated, shall enter upon his investigations, let him constantly meditate upon that saying of the apostle's, "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth." [I Cor. 8. 1.] For

Where, however, the ambiguity cannot be cleared up, either by the rule of faith or by the context, there is nothing to hinder us to point the sentence according to any method we choose of those that suggest themselves. As is the case in that passage to the Corinthians: "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

ambiguity arising out of the doubtful sound of syllables; and this of course has relation to pronunciation.

bondage to temporal things,

"Thou, Father Neptune, whose hoary temples are wreathed with the resounding sea, whose beard is the mighty ocean flowing forth unceasingly, and whose hair is the winding rivers." This husk shakes its rattling stones within a sweet covering, and yet it is not food for men, but for swine. He who knows the gospel knows what I mean. [Luke, 15. 16.]

What profit is it to me, then, that the image of Neptune is used with a reference to this explanation of it, unless indeed the result be that I worship neither?

Those, on the other hand, whom it found in bondage to useless signs, it not only freed from their slavery to such signs, but brought to nothing and cleared out of the way all these signs themselves, so that the Gentiles were turned from the corruption of a multitude of false gods, which Scripture frequently and justly speaks of as fornication, to the worship of the One God: not that they might now fall into bondage to signs of a useful kind, but rather that they might exercise their minds in the spiritual understanding of such.

Now he is in bondage to a sign who uses, or pays homage to, any significant object without knowing what it signifies: he, on the other hand, who either uses or honors a useful sign divinely appointed, whose force and significance he understands, does not honor the sign which is seen and temporal, but that to which all such signs refer.

But in addition to the foregoing rule, which guards us against taking a metaphorical form of speech as if it were literal, we must also pay heed to that which tells us not to take a literal form of speech as if it were figurative.

reference to the love of God and one's neighbor; soundness of doctrine to the knowledge of God and one's neighbor.

Every man, moreover, has hope in his own conscience, so far as he perceives that he has attained to the love and knowledge of God and his neighbor.

I mean by charity that affection of the mind which aims at the enjoyment of God for His own sake, and the enjoyment of one's self and one's neighbor in subordination to God; by lust I mean that affection of the mind which aims at enjoying one's self and one's neighbor, and other corporeal things, without reference to God.

But this is addressed to those who, being unwilling to subdue their lust, are themselves involved in the destruction of their lust. When, however, the dominion of lust is overturned in a man over whom it had held sway, this plain expression is used: "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts." [Gal. 5. 24.]

the hidden kernel of meaning they contain is to be picked out as food for the nourishment of charity.

For it is possible that a wise man may use the daintiest food without any sin of epicurism or gluttony, while a fool will crave for the vilest food with a most disgusting eagerness of appetite.

Now the saints of ancient times were, under the form of an earthly kingdom, fore-shadowing and foretelling the kingdom of heaven.

for lust not only abuses to wicked ends the customs of those among whom we live, but frequently also transgressing the bounds of custom, betrays, in a disgraceful outbreak, its own hideousness, which was concealed under the cover of prevailing fashions.

nor were able to awake into the light of wisdom—have thought that there was no such thing as absolute right, but that every nation took its own custom for right; and that, since every nation has a different custom, and right must remain unchangeable, it becomes manifest that there is no such thing as right at all.

Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them," [Matt. 7. 12. Cf. Tobit, 4. 15.] cannot be altered by any diversity of national customs.

If the sentence is one of command, either forbidding a crime or vice, or enjoining an act of prudence or benevolence, it is not figurative. If, however, it seems to enjoin a crime or vice, or to forbid an act of prudence or benevolence, it is figurative. "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man," says Christ, "and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." [John, 6. 53.] This seems to enjoin a crime or a vice; it is therefore a figure, enjoining that we should have a share in the sufferings of our Lord, and that we should retain a sweet and profitable memory of the fact that His flesh was wounded and crucified for us. Scripture says: "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink;" and this is beyond doubt a command to do a kindness. But in what follows, "for in so doing thou shall heap coals of fire on his head," [Rom. 12. 20; Prov. 25. 21, 22.] one would think a deed of malevolence was enjoined. Do not doubt, then, that the expression is figurative; and, while it is possible to interpret it in two ways, one pointing to the doing of an injury, the other to a display of superiority, let charity on the contrary call you back to benevolence, and interpret the coals of fire as the burning groans of penitence by which a man's pride is cured who bewails that he has been the enemy of one who came to his assistance in distress. In the same way, when our Lord says, "He who loveth his life shall lose it," [John, 12. 25. Cf. Matt. 10. 39.] we are not to think that H...

used marriage only for the sake of offspring.

DAVID NOT LUSTFUL, THOUGH HE FELL INTO ADULTERY.

wiped out his sin in deep penitence.

Scripture on which it is not clearly written that God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. [Cf. Jas. 4. 6 and I Pet. 5. 6.]

literal or figurative.

"Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees," [Matt. 16. 6; Luke, 12. 1.] and in a good sense, as when He said, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." [Luke, 13. 21.]

that a lion stands for Christ in the place where it is said, "The lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed;" [Rev. 5. 5.] and again, stands for the devil where it is written, "Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion,

Be wise as serpents;" [Matt. 10. 16.] and again, in a bad sense, "The serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety." [II Cor. 11. 3.]

OBSCURE PASSAGES ARE TO BE INTERPRETED BY THOSE WHICH ARE CLEARER.

ONE PASSAGE SUSCEPTIBLE OF VARIOUS INTERPRETATIONS.

assuredly the Holy Spirit, who through him spoke these words, foresaw that this interpretation would occur to the reader, nay, made provision that it should occur to him, seeing that it too is founded on truth. For what more liberal and more fruitful provision could God

KNOWLEDGE OF TROPES

For who does not say, "So may you flourish?" And this is the figure of speech called metaphor.

irony we indicate by the tone of voice the meaning we desire to convey;

"Beware of him, for he is a good man.

penetrating the secrets of the sacred writings; but still they do not explain all the difficult passages, for there are several other methods required, which are so far from being embraced in this number of seven, that the author himself explains many obscure passages without using any of his rules;

And if this system of rules be received as I communicate it, without jealousy, what is shut shall be laid open, and what is obscure shall be elucidated, so that a man travelling through the vast forest of prophecy shall, if he follow these rules as pathways of light, be preserved from going astray.

seven rules teach or advise.

head and the body—that

the twofold division of the body of the Lord

the true and the mixed body of the Lord,

The Church declares itself to be at present both; and this because the good fish and the bad are for the time mixed up in the one net. [Matt. 13. 47, 48.] For the tents of Kedar pertain to Ishmæl, who "shall not be heir with the son of the free woman." [Gal. 4. 30.] And

promises and the law,

the spirit and the letter,

"There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you" [I Cor. 11. 19.])