Kyle Rapinchuk's Reviews > On Christian Teaching

In On Christian Teaching, Augustine has written an excellent book on the topic of interpreting and teaching Scripture, although it includes so much more. Ultimately Augustine spends Books I-III discussing how to understand what is said in Scripture, and then in Book IV moving on to how to say/communicate what was understood. Augustine himself seems to admit that Books II-III are a bit wordy and tedious, but they are helpful nonetheless, particularly his discussion of things and signs, which are itself things that point to other things. Book I has an excellent discussion of what it means to love one's neighbor and how that discussion fits into reading and interpreting Scripture. In Book IV, Augustine does an excellent job of depending why and how a preacher or teacher of God's Word should do so eloquently. This book will be particularly helpful for preachers, though it has much to say to students of rhetoric and to teachers more generally.