Augustine
1. On Christian Doctrine:
Book 1
a. All
teaching is through things or signs.
i. What
is meant by things:
1. In
the strict sense, things are as they are and do not represent other things.
2. Particular
things can be signs for other things.
3. There
are things whose whole function is to signify other things, such as words.
ii. What
is meant by signs:
1. Those
things that are employed to signify something else.
2. By
it’s nature a sign cannot represent something that doesn’t exist.
b. Things
are meant to be either enjoyed or used.
i. To
be enjoyed means to be loved for its own sake.
ii. To
be used means to apply it to something for the purpose of obtaining what you
enjoy, if the enjoyment is appropriate.
iii. To
enjoy something that is meant to be used is an abuse.
iv. God
is meant to be enjoyed, or loved, and the world is a material object we use to
better understand God.
c. Speech
is the sounds we make to communicate to the listener.
d. Interpretation
of Scripture.
i. If
one doesn’t understand the meaning of scripture, then one hasn’t succeeded in
understanding the author.
ii. Not
understanding is not the same as lying, nor is it considered a fatal error.
2. On Christian Doctrine: Book 2
a. A
sign is a thing that brings something else to mind.
i. Natural
signs signify something without intent.
ii. Given
signs signify something with intent.
b. All
the sense can identify signs.
i. Words
have gained the dominant role to signify the ideas of the mind.
ii. Words
are the invention of speech.
c. There
are two reasons why texts fail to be understood.
i. Their
meaning may be veiled by unknown signs.
ii. Their
meaning may be veiled by ambiguous signs.
d. Signs
are either literal of metaphorical.
i. They
are literal when used to signify the thing for which they were invented.
ii. They
are metaphorical when they are used to signify something for which they weren’t
invented.
e. Knowledge
of languages is important as one may need to go to the original source to
understand its meaning.
3. On Christian Doctrine: Book 3
a. On
must not interpret a figurative expression literally.
i. Literal
interpretation of figurative expression lowers the understanding to baser
thought.
ii. Intelligence
in understanding figurative language raises the understanding above that of
animals.
iii. It
is a “spiritual slavery” not to be able to interpret signs as things and be
incapable of raising the mind’s eye to absorb “the eternal light.”
b. One
should not accept a literal expression as if were figurative.
c. Determine
literal from the figurative.
i. Anything
that cannot be related to good morals or true faith should be taken as
figurative.
ii. Knowledge
of tropes and grammar is essential to understanding the ambiguities of
scripture.
Augustine of Hippo. On Christian Doctrine. Creative Commons.
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_Christian_Doctrine. Dec. 14. 2013. Web.
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