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Augustine of Hippo, On Christian Doctrine
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Augustine of Hippo. On Christian Doctrine
Chapter 2.—What a Thing Is, and What A Sign.
Chapter 3.—Some Things are for Use, Some for Enjoyment.
Chapter 4.—Difference of Use and Enjoyment.
Chapter 5.—The Trinity the True Object of Enjoyment.
Chapter 6.—In What Sense God is Ineffable.
Chapter 7.—What All Men Understand by the Term God.
Chapter 8.—God to Be Esteemed Above All Else, Because He is Unchangeable Wisdom.
Chapter 9.—All Acknowledge the Superiority of Unchangeable Wisdom to that Which is Variable.
Chapter 10.—To See God, the Soul Must Be Purified.
Chapter 11.—Wisdom Becoming Incarnate, a Pattern to Us of Purification.
Chapter 12.—In What Sense the Wisdom of God Came to Us.
Chapter 13.—The Word Was Made Flesh.
Chapter 14.—How the Wisdom of God Healed Man.
Chapter 16.—Christ Purges His Church by Medicinal Afflictions.
Chapter 17.—Christ, by Forgiving Our Sins, Opened the Way to Our Home.
Chapter 18.—The Keys Given to the Church.
Chapter 19.—Bodily and Spiritual Death and Resurrection.
Chapter 20.—The Resurrection to Damnation.
Chapter 21.—Neither Body Nor Soul Extinguished at Death.
Chapter 22.—God Alone to Be Enjoyed.
Chapter 23.—Man Needs No Injunction to Love Himself and His Own Body.
Chapter 24.—No Man Hates His Own Flesh, Not Even Those Who Abuse It.
Chapter 25.—A Man May Love Something More Than His Body, But Does Not Therefore Hate His Body.
Chapter 26.—The Command to Love God and Our Neighbor Includes a Command to Love Ourselves.
Chapter 27.—The Order of Love.
Chapter 28.—How We are to Decide Whom to Aid.
Chapter 29.—We are to Desire and Endeavor that All Men May Love God.
Chapter 30.—Whether Angels are to Be Reckoned Our Neighbors.
Chapter 31.—God Uses Rather Than Enjoys Us.
Chapter 32.—In What Way God Uses Man.
Chapter 33.—In What Way Man Should Be Enjoyed.
Chapter 34.—Christ the First Way to God.
Chapter 35.—The Fulfillment and End of Scripture is the Love of God and Our Neighbor.
Chapter 37.—Dangers of Mistaken Interpretation.
Chapter 38.—Love Never Faileth.
Chapter 39.—He Who is Mature in Faith, Hope and Love, Needs Scripture No Longer.
Chapter 40.—What Manner of Reader Scripture Demands.
Chapter 1.—Signs, Their Nature and Variety.
Chapter 2.—Of the Kind of Signs We are Now Concerned with.
Chapter 3.—Among Signs, Words Hold the Chief Place.
Chapter 5.—Scripture Translated into Various Languages.
Chapter 6.—Use of the Obscurities in Scripture Which Arise from Its Figurative Language.
Chapter 8.—The Canonical Books.
Chapter 9.—How We Should Proceed in Studying Scripture.
Chapter 10.—Unknown or Ambiguous Signs Prevent Scripture from Being Understood.
Chapter 12.—A Diversity of Interpretations is Useful. Errors Arising from Ambiguous Words.
Chapter 13.—How Faulty Interpretations Can Be Emended.
Chapter 14.—How the Meaning of Unknown Words and Idioms is to Be Discovered.
Chapter 15.—Among Versions a Preference is Given to the Septuagint and the Itala.
Chapter 17.—Origin of the Legend of the Nine Muses.
Chapter 18.—No Help is to Be Despised, Even Though It Come from a Profane Source.
Chapter 19.—Two Kinds Of Heathen Knowledge.
Chapter 20.—The Superstitious Nature of Human Institutions.
Chapter 21.—Superstition of Astrologers.
Chapter 22 .—The Folly of Observing the Stars in Order to Predict the Events of a Life.
Chapter 23.—Why We Repudiate Arts of Divination.
Chapter 24.—The Intercourse and Agreement with Demons Which Superstitious Observances Maintain.
Chapter 26.—What Human Contrivances We are to Adopt, and What We are to Avoid.
Chapter 28.—To What Extent History is an Aid.
Chapter 29.—To What Extent Natural Science is an Exegetical Aid.
Chapter 30.—What the Mechanical Arts Contribute to Exegetics.
Chapter 31.—Use of Dialectics. Of Fallacies.
Chapter 32.—Valid Logical Sequence is Not Devised But Only Observed by Man.
Chapter 33.—False Inferences May Be Drawn from Valid Reasonings, and Vice Versa.
Chapter 34.—It is One Thing to Know the Laws of Inference, Another to Know the Truth of Opinions.
Chapter 35 .—The Science of Definition is Not False, Though It May Be Applied to Falsities.
Chapter 36.—The Rules of Eloquence are True, Though Sometimes Used to Persuade Men of What is False.
Chapter 37.—Use of Rhetoric and Dialectic.
Chapter 38.—The Science of Numbers Not Created, But Only Discovered, by Man.
Chapter 39.—To Which of the Above-Mentioned Studies Attention Should Be Given, and in What Spirit.
Chapter 40.—Whatever Has Been Rightly Said by the Heathen, We Must Appropriate to Our Uses.
Chapter 41.—What Kind of Spirit is Required for the Study of Holy Scripture.
Chapter 42.—Sacred Scripture Compared with Profane Authors.
Chapter 1 .—Summary of the Foregoing Books, and Scope of that Which Follows.
Chapter 2.—Rule for Removing Ambiguity by Attending to Punctuation.
Chapter 3.—How Pronunciation Serves to Remove Ambiguity. Different Kinds of Interrogation.
Chapter 4.—How Ambiguities May Be Solved.
Chapter 6.—Utility of the Bondage of the Jews.
Chapter 7.—The Useless Bondage of the Gentiles.
Chapter 8.—The Jews Liberated from Their Bondage in One Way, the Gentiles in Another.
Chapter 9.—Who is in Bondage to Signs, and Who Not.
Chapter 10.—How We are to Discern Whether a Phrase is Figurative.
Chapter 11.—Rule for Interpreting Phrases Which Seem to Ascribe Severity to God and the Saints.
Chapter 13.—Same Subject, Continued.
Chapter 14.—Error of Those Who Think that There is No Absolute Right and Wrong.
Chapter 15.—Rule for Interpreting Figurative Expressions.
Chapter 16.—Rule for Interpreting Commands and Prohibitions.
Chapter 17.—Some Commands are Given to All in Common, Others to Particular Classes.
Chapter 18.—We Must Take into Consideration the Time at Which Anything Was Enjoyed or Allowed.
Chapter 19.—Wicked Men Judge Others by Themselves.
Chapter 20.—Consistency of Good Men in All Outward Circumstances.
Chapter 21.—David Not Lustful, Though He Fell into Adultery.
Chapter 23.—Rule Regarding the Narrative of Sins of Great Men.
Chapter 24.—The Character of the Expressions Used is Above All to Have Weight.
Chapter 25.—The Same Word Does Not Always Signify the Same Thing.
Chapter 26.—Obscure Passages are to Be Interpreted by Those Which are Clearer.
Chapter 27.—One Passage Susceptible of Various Interpretations.
Chapter 29.—The Knowledge of Tropes is Necessary.
Chapter 30.—The Rules of Tichonius the Donatist Examined.
Chapter 31.—The First Rule of Tichonius.
Chapter 32.—The Second Rule of Tichonius.
Chapter 33.—The Third Rule of Tichonius.
Chapter 34.—The Fourth Rule of Tichonius.
Chapter 35.—The Fifth Rule of Tichonius.
Chapter 36.—The Sixth Rule of Tichonius.
Chapter 37.—The Seventh Rule of Tichonius.
Chapter 1.—This Work Not Intended as a Treatise on Rhetoric.
Chapter 2.—It is Lawful for a Christian Teacher to Use the Art of Rhetoric.
Chapter 3.—The Proper Age and the Proper Means for Acquiring Rhetorical Skill.
Chapter 4.—The Duty of the Christian Teacher.
Chapter 5.—Wisdom of More Importance Than Eloquence to the Christian Teacher.
Chapter 6.—The Sacred Writers Unite Eloquence with Wisdom.
Chapter 7.—Examples of True Eloquence Drawn from the Epistles of Paul and the Prophecies of Amos.
Chapter 9.—How, and with Whom, Difficult Passages are to Be Discussed.
Chapter 10.—The Necessity for Perspicuity of Style.
Chapter 11.—The Christian Teacher Must Speak Clearly, But Not Inelegantly.
Chapter 13.—The Hearer Must Be Moved as Well as Instructed.
Chapter 14.—Beauty of Diction to Be in Keeping with the Matter.
Chapter 15.—The Christian Teacher Should Pray Before Preaching.
Chapter 16.—Human Directions Not to Be Despised, Though God Makes the True Teacher.
Chapter 17.—Threefold Division of The Various Styles of Speech.
Chapter 18.—The Christian Orator is Constantly Dealing with Great Matters.
Chapter 19.—The Christian Teacher Must Use Different Styles on Different Occasions.
Chapter 20.—Examples of the Various Styles Drawn from Scripture.
Chapter 22.—The Necessity of Variety in Style.
Chapter 23.—How the Various Styles Should Be Mingled.
Chapter 24.—The Effects Produced by the Majestic Style.
Chapter 25.—How the Temperate Style is to Be Used.
Chapter 26.—In Every Style the Orator Should Aim at Perspicuity, Beauty, and Persuasiveness.
Chapter 27.—The Man Whose Life is in Harmony with His Teaching Will Teach with Greater Effect.
Chapter 28.—Truth is More Important Than Expression. What is Meant by Strife About Words.
Chapter 30.—The Preacher Should Commence His Discourse with Prayer to God.
Chapter 8.—God to Be Esteemed Above All Else, Because He is Unchangeable Wisdom.
8. And 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; and, whatever may be the bodily form that has suggested itself to them, recognize that it is by life it lives or does not live, and prefer what is living to what is dead; who understand that the living bodily form itself, however it may outshine all others in splendor, overtop them in size, and excel them in beauty, is quite a distinct thing from the life by which it is quickened; and who look upon the life as incomparably superior in dignity and worth to the mass which is quickened and animated by it. Then, when they go on to look into the nature of the life itself, if they find it mere nutritive life, without sensibility, such as that of plants, they consider it inferior to sentient life, such as that of cattle; and above this, again, they place intelligent life, such as that of men. And, perceiving that even this is subject to change, they are compelled to place above it, again, that unchangeable life which is not at one time foolish, at another time wise, but on the contrary is wisdom itself. For a wise intelligence, that is, one that has attained to wisdom, was, previous to its attaining wisdom, unwise. But wisdom itself never was unwise, and never can become so. And if men never caught sight of this wisdom, they could never with entire confidence prefer a life which is unchangeably wise to one that is subject to change. This will be evident, if we consider that the very rule of truth by which they affirm the unchangeable life to be the more excellent, is itself unchangeable: and they cannot find such a rule, except by going beyond their own nature; for they find nothing in themselves that is not subject to change.
CAPUT VIII. Deus cum sit sapientia incommutabilis, rebus omnibus anteponendus.
8. Et quoniam omnes qui de Deo cogitant, vivum aliquid cogitant, illi soli possunt non absurda et indigna existimare de Deo, qui vitam ipsam cogitant, et quaecumque illis forma occurrerit corporis, eam vita vivere vel non vivere statuunt, et viventem non viventi anteponunt; eamque ipsam viventem corporis formam, quantalibet luce praefulgeat, quantalibet magnitudine praeemineat, quantalibet pulchritudine ornetur, aliud esse ipsam, aliud vitam qua vegetatur intelligunt, eamque illi moli quae ab illa vegetatur et animatur, dignitate incomparabili praeferunt. Deinde ipsam vitam pergunt inspicere, et si eam sine sensu vegetantem invenerint, qualis est arborum, praeponunt eis sentientem, qualis est pecorum; et huic rursus intelligentem, qualis est hominum. Quam cum adhuc mutabilem viderint, etiam huic aliquam incommutabilem coguntur praeponere, illam scilicet vitam quae non aliquando desipit, aliquando sapit, sed est potius ipsa Sapientia. Sapiens enim mens, id est, adepta sapientiam, antequam adipisceretur non erat sapiens; at vero ipsa Sapientia nec fuit unquam insipiens, nec esse unquam potest. Quam si non viderent, nullo modo plena fiducia vitam incommutabiliter sapientem commutabili vitae anteponerent. Ipsam quippe regulam veritatis, qua illam clamant esse meliorem, incommutabilem vident; nec uspiam nisi supra suam 0023 naturam vident, quandoquidem se vident mutabiles.