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St. Augustine
On Christian Doctrine
in four books

II IntraText Edition CT
Copyright EuloTech 2007 - See also: Credits

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- Table of Contents -

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• Preface - Showing that to teach rules for the interpretation of Scripture is not a superfluous task
• BOOK I. - Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture
  • Argument
  • Chap. 1. The interpretation of Scripture depends on the discovery and enunciation of the meaning, and is to be undertaken in dependence on God's aid.
  • Chap. 2. What a thing is, and what a sign
  • Chap. 3. Some things are for use, some for enjoyment
  • Chap. 4. Difference of use and enjoyment
  • Chap. 5. The Trinity the true object of enjoyment
  • Chap. 6. In what sense God is ineffable
  • Chap. 7. What all men understand by the term God
  • Chap. 8. God to be esteemed above all else because He is unchangeable Wisdom
  • Chap. 9. All acknowledge the superiority of unchangeable: wisdom to that which is variable
  • Chap. 10. To see God, the soul must be purified
  • Chap. 11. Wisdom becoming incarnate, a pattern to us of purification
  • Chap. 12. In what sense the Wisdom of God came to us
  • Chap. 13. The Word was made flesh
  • Chap. 14. How the wisdom of God healed man
  • Chap. 15. Faith is buttressed by the resurrection and ascension of Christ, and is stimulated by His coming to judgment
  • Chap. 16. Christ purges His church by medicinal afflictions
  • Chap. 17. Christ, by forgiving our sins, opened the way to our home
  • chap. 18. The keys given to the Church
  • chap. 19. Bodily and spiritual death and resurrection
  • chap. 20. The resurrection to damnation
  • chap. 21. Neither body nor soul extinguished at death
  • chap. 22. God alone to be enjoyed
  • chap. 23. Man needs no injunction to love himself and his own body
  • chap. 24. No man hates his own flesh, not even those who abuse it
  • chap. 25. A man may love something more than his body, but does not therefore hate his body
  • chap. 26. The command to love God and our neighbour includes a command to love ourselves
  • chap. 27. The order of love
  • chap. 28. How we are to decide whom to aid
  • chap. 29. We are to desire and endeavour that all men may love God
  • chap. 30. Whether angels are to be reckoned our neighbours
  • chap. 31. God uses rather than enjoys us
  • chap. 32. In what way God uses man
  • chap. 33. In what way man should be enjoyed
  • chap. 34. Christ the first way to God
  • chap. 35. The fulfilment and end of Scripture is the love of God and our neighbour
  • chap. 36. That interpretation of Scripture which builds us up in love is not perniciously deceptive nor mendacious, even though it be faulty. The interpreter, however should be corrected
  • chap. 37. Dangers of mistaken interpretation
  • chap. 38. Love never faileth
  • chap. 39. He who is mature in faith hope and love, needs Scripture no longer
  • chap. 40. What manner of reader Scripture demands
    
    
• BOOK II.
  • Argument
  • chap. 1. Signs, their nature and variety
  • chap. 2. Of the kind of signs we are now concerned with
  • chap. 3. Among signs, words hold the chief place
  • chap. 4. Origin of writing
  • chap. 5. Scripture translated into various languages
  • chap. 6. Use of the obscurities in Scripture which arise from its figurative language
  • chap. 7. Steps to wisdom: first, fear; second, piety; third, knowledge; fourth, resolution; fifth, counsel; sixth, purification of heart; seventh, stop or termination, wisdom
  • chap. 8. The canonical books
  • chap. 9. How we should proceed in studying Scripture
  • chap. 10. Unknown or ambiguous signs prevent Scripture from being understood
  • chap. 11. Knowledge of languages especially of Greek and Hebrew, necessary to remove ignorance of signs
  • chap. 12. A diversity of interpretations is useful. Errors arising from ambiguous words
  • chap. 13. How faulty interpretations can be emended
  • chap. 14. How the meaning of unknown words and idioms is to be discovered
  • chap. 15. Among versions a preference is given to the Septuagint and the Itala
  • chap. 16. The knowledge both of language and things is helpful for the understanding of figurative expressions
  • chap. 17. Origin of the legend of the nine Muses
  • chap. 18. No help is to be despised even though it come from a profane source
  • chap. 19. Two kinds of heathen knowledge
  • chap. 20. The superstitious nature of human institutions
  • chap. 21. Superstition of astrologers
  • Chap. 22. The folly of observing the stars in order to predict the events of a life
  • chap. 23. Why we repudiate arts of divination
  • chap. 24. The intercourse and agreement with demons which superstitious observances maintain
  • chap. 25. In human institutions which are not superstitious, there are some things superfluous and some convenient and necessary
  • chap. 26. What human contrivances we are to adopt, and what we are to avoid
  • chap. 27. Some departments of knowledge, not of mere human invention, aid us in interpreting Scripture
  • chap. 28. To what extent history is an aid
  • chap. 29. To what extent natural science is an exegetical aid
  • chap. 30. What the mechanical arts contribute to exegetics
  • chap. 31. Use of dialectics. Of fallacies
  • chap. 32. Valid logical sequence is not devised but only observed by man
  • chap. 33. False inferences may be drawn from valid seasonings, and vice versa
  • chap. 34. It is one thing to know the laws of inference, another to know the truth of opinions
  • chap. 35. The science of definition is not false, though it may be applied to falsities
  • chap. 36. The rules of eloquence are true, though sometimes used to persuade men of what is false
  • chap. 37. Use of rhetoric and dialectic
  • chap. 38. The science of numbers not created, but only discovered, by man
  • chap. 39. To which of the above-mentioned studies attention should be given, and in what spirit
  • chap. 40. Whatever has been rightly said by the heathen, we must appropriate to our uses
  • chap. 41. What kind of spirit is required for the study of Holy Scripture
  • chap. 42. Sacred Scripture compared with profane authors
    
    
• BOOK III.
  • Argument.
  • chap. 1. Summary of the foregoing books, and scope of that which follows
  • chap. 2. Rule for removing ambiguity by attending to punctuation
  • chap. 3. How pronunciation serves to remove ambiguity different kinds of interrogation
  • chap. 4. How ambiguities may be solved
  • chap. 5. It is a wretched slavery which takes the figurative expressions of Scripture in a literal sense
  • chap. 6. Utility of the bondage of the Jews
  • chap. 7. The useless bondage of the gentiles
  • chap. 8. The Jews liberated from their bondage in one way, the gentiles in another
  • chap. 9. Who is in bondage to signs, and who not
  • chap. 10. How we are to discern whether a phrase is figurative
  • chap. 11. Rule for interpreting phrases which seem to ascribe severity to God and the saints
  • chap. 12. Rule for interpreting those sayings and actions which are ascribed to God and the saints and which yet seem to the unskilful to be wicked
  • chap. 13. Same subject, continued
  • chap. 14. Error of those who think that there is no absolute right and wrong
  • chap. 15. Rule for interpreting figurative expressions
  • chap. 16. Rule for interpreting commands and prohibitions
  • chap. 17. Some commands are given to all in common, others to particular classes
  • chap. 18. We must take into consideration the time at which anything was enjoyed or allowed
  • chap. 19. Wicked men judge others by themselves
  • chap. 20. Consistency of good men in all outward circumstances
  • chap. 21. David not lustful, though he fell into adultery
  • chap. 22. Rule regarding passages of Scripture in which approval is expressed of actions which are now condemned by good men
  • chap. 23. Rule regarding the narrative of sins of great men
  • chap. 24. The character of the expressions used is above all to have weight
  • chap. 25. The same word does not always signify the same thing
  • chap. 26. Obscure passages are to be interpreted by those which are clearer
  • chap. 27. One passage susceptible of various interpretations
  • chap. 28. It is safer to explain a doubtful passage by other passages of Scripture than by reason
  • chap. 29. The knowledge of tropes is necessary
  • chap. 30. The rules of Tichonius the Donatist examined
  • chap. 31. The first rule of Tichonius
  • chap. 32. The second rule of Tichonius
  • chap. 33. The third rule of Tichonius
  • chap. 34. The fourth rule of Tichonius
  • chap. 35. The fifth rule of Tichonius
  • chap. 36. The sixth rule of Tichonius
  • chap. 37. The seventh rule of Tichonius
    
    
• BOOK IV.
  • Argument.
  • chap. 1. This work not intended as a treatise on rhetoric
  • chap. 2. It is lawful for a Christian teacher to use the art of rhetoric
  • chap. 3. The proper age and the proper means for acquiring rhetorical skill
  • chap. 4. The duty of the Christian teacher
  • chap. 5. Wisdom of more importance than eloquence to the Christian teacher
  • chap. 6. The sacred writers unite eloquence with wisdom
  • chap. 7. Examples of true eloquence drawn from the epistles of Paul and the prophecies of Amos
  • chap. 8. The obscurity of the sacred writers, though compatible with eloquence, not to be imitated by Christian teachers
  • chap. 9. How, and with whom, difficult passages are to be discussed
  • chap. 10. The necessity for perspicuity of style
  • chap. 11. The Christian teacher must speak clearly, but not inelegantly
  • chap. 12. The aim of the orator, according to Cicero, is to teach, to delight, and to move. Of these, teaching is the most essential
  • chap. 13. The hearer must be moved as well as instructed
  • chap. 14. Beauty of diction to be in keeping with the matter
  • chap. 15. The Christian teacher should pray before preaching
  • chap. 16. Human directions not to be despised though God makes the true teacher
  • chap. 17. Threefold division of the various styles of speech
  • chap. 18. The Christian orator is constantly dealing with great matters
  • chap. 19. The Christian teacher must use different styles on different occasions
  • chap. 20. Examples of the various styles drawn from Scripture
  • chap. 21. Examples of the various styles, drawn from the teachers of the church, especially Ambrose and Cyprian
  • chap. 22. The necessity of variety in style
  • chap. 23. How the various styles should be mingled
  • chap. 24. The effects produced by the majestic style
  • chap. 25. How the temperate style is to be used
  • chap. 26. In every style the orator should aim at perspicuity, beauty, and persuasiveness
  • chap. 27. The man whose life is in harmony with his teaching will teach with greater effect
  • chap. 28. Truth is more important than expression. What is meant by strife about words
  • chap. 29. It is permissible for a preacher to deliver to the people what has been written by a more eloquent man than himself
  • chap. 30. The preacher should commence his discourse with prayer to God
  • chap. 31. Apology for the length of the work

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Credits

Printed source	Not available
Source of the electronic transcription	Christian Classics Ethereal Library - https://ccel.wheaton.edu/augustine/
ETML tagging	IntraText editorial staff

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