▾
Augustine of Hippo, On Christian Doctrine
⎗←→⎘
▾
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 16.—Human Directions Not to Be Despised, Though God Makes the True Teacher.
33. Now if any one says that we need not direct men how or what they should teach, since the Holy Spirit makes them teachers, he may as well say that we need not pray, since our Lord says, “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him;”252 Matt. vi. 8. or that the Apostle Paul should not have given directions to Timothy and Titus as to how or what they should teach others. And these three apostolic epistles ought to be constantly before the eyes of every one who has obtained the position of a teacher in the Church. In the First Epistle to Timothy do we not read: “These things command and teach?”253 1 Tim. iv. 11. What these things are, has been told previously. Do we not read there: “Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father?”254 1 Tim. v. 1. Is it not said in the Second Epistle: “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me?”255 2 Tim. i. 13. And is he not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth?”256 2 Tim. ii. 15. And in the same place: “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine.”257 2 Tim. iv. 2. And so in the Epistle to Titus, does he not say that a bishop ought to “hold fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers?”258 Tit. i. 9. There, too, he says: “But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: that the aged men be sober,” and so on.259 Tit. ii. 1, 2. And there, too: “These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee. Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers,”260 Tit. ii. 15, iii. 1. and so on. What then are we to think? Does the apostle in any way contradict himself, when, though he says that men are made teachers by the operation of the Holy Spirit, he yet himself gives them directions how and what they should teach? Or are we to understand, that though the duty of men to teach even the teachers does not cease when the Holy Spirit is given, yet that neither is he who planteth anything, nor he who watereth, but God who giveth the increase?261 1 Cor. iii. 7. Wherefore though holy men be our helpers, or even holy angels assist us, no one learns aright the things that pertain to life with God, until God makes him ready to learn from Himself, that God who is thus addressed in the psalm: “Teach me to do Thy will; for Thou art my God.”262 Ps. cxliii. 10. And so the same apostle says to Timothy himself, speaking, of course, as teacher to disciple: “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.”263 2 Tim. iii. 14. For as the medicines which men apply to the bodies of their fellow-men are of no avail except God gives them virtue (who can heal without their aid, though they cannot without His), and yet they are applied; and if it be done from a sense of duty, it is esteemed a work of mercy or benevolence; so the aids of teaching, applied through the instrumentality of man, are of advantage to the soul only when God works to make them of advantage, who could give the gospel to man even without the help or agency of men.
CAPUT XVI. Docendi praecepta non superfluo dantur ab homine, tametsi doctores efficiat Deus.
33. Quisquis autem dicit non esse hominibus praecipiendum quid, vel quemadmodum doceant, si doctores sanctus efficit Spiritus, potest dicere nec orandum nobis esse, quia Dominus ait, Scit pater vester quid vobis necessarium sit, prius quam petatis ab eo (Id. VI, 8); aut apostolum Paulum Timotheo et Tito non debuisse praecipere quid, vel quemadmodum praeciperent aliis. Quas tres apostolicas Epistolas ante oculos habere debet, cui est in Ecclesia doctoris persona imposita. Nonne in prima ad Timotheum legitur: 0104Annuntia haec et doce (I Tim. IV, 11)? quae autem sint, supra dictum est. Nonne ibi est: Seniorem ne increpaveris, sed obsecra ut patrem (Id. V, 1)? Nonne in secunda ei dicitur: Formam habe verborum sanorum, quae a me audisti (II Tim. I, 13)? Nonne ibi ei dicitur: Satis age, teipsum probabilem operarium exhibens Deo, non erubescentem, verbum veritatis recte tractantem (Id. II, 15)? Ibi est et illud: Praedica verbum, insta opportune, importune; argue, obsecra, increpa in omni longanimitate et doctrina (II Tim. IV, 2). Itemque ad Titum, nonne dicit episcopum juxta doctrinam fidelis verbi perseverantem esse debere, ut potens sit in doctrina sana et contradicentes redarguere (Tit. I, 9)? Ibi etiam dicit: Tu vero loquere quae decent sanam doctrinam, senes sobrios esse (Id. II, 1, 2), et quae sequuntur. Ibi et illud: Haec loquere, et exhortare, et increpa cum omni imperio. Nemo te contemnat (Ibid. 15). Admone illos principibus et potestatibus subditos esse (Id. III, 1), etc. Quid ergo putamus? Numquid contra seipsum sentit Apostolus, qui cum dicat doctores operatione fieri Spiritus sancti, ipse illis praecipit quid et quemadmodum doceant? An intelligendum est, et hominum officia ipso sancto Spiritu largiente, in docendis etiam ipsis doctoribus non debere cessare; et tamen neque qui plantat esse aliquid, neque qui rigat, sed Deum qui incrementum dat (I Cor. III, 7)? Unde ipsis quoque ministris sanctis hominibus, vel etiam sanctis Angelis operantibus, nemo recte discit quae pertinent ad vivendum cum Deo, nisi fiat a Deo docilis Deo , cui dicitur in Psalmo: Doce me facere voluntatem tuam, quoniam tu es Deus meus (Psal. CXLII, 10). Unde et ipsi Timotheo idem dicit apostolus, loquens utique ad discipulum doctor: Tu autem persevera in iis quae didicisti, et credita sunt tibi, sciens a quo didiceris (II Tim. III, 14). Sicut enim corporis medicamenta, quae hominibus ab hominibus adhibentur, nonnisi eis prosunt quibus Deus operatur salutem, qui et sine illis mederi potest, cum sine ipso illa non possint, et tamen adhibentur; et si hoc officiose fiat, inter opera misericordiae vel beneficentiae deputatur: ita et adjumenta doctrinae tunc prosunt animae adhibita per hominem, cum Deus operatur ut prosint, qui potuit Evangelium dare homini, etiam non ab hominibus, neque per hominem.