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Augustine of HippoOn Christian Doctrine
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Book 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 3 Summary
In Book 3, Augustine approaches the subject of how to interpret the literal and the figurative and addresses some issues regarding the customs and morality of the Old Testament. Augustine stresses the difficulties in dealing with figurative language, warning his readers that, “we must beware of taking a figurative expression literally” (216), and vice versa. The general solution Augustine offers is as follows: “[W]hatever there is in the word of God that cannot, when taken literally, be referred either to purity of life or soundness of doctrine, you may set down as figurative” (226). Augustine again emphasizes the ultimate end of scripture is to urge believers in the twofold love of their neighbor and the love of God.
In speaking of the Old Testament, Augustine admits that many of the customs depicted in the Old Testament seem at odds with Christian morality, such as the practice of polygamy by the Old Testament kings and patriarchs (253). His solution is to argue that things that were done at that time were time out of necessity and in a spirit of obedience to God and that such customs are now neither necessary nor acceptable (253).
Augustine then offers an overview of the seven interpretive rules as laid out by Ticonius in a (now lost) work of theology. The first rule is about the body of the Lord, explaining that Christ is the head of the church, and the church is the body. The second rule is about the twofold nature of this body, which Augustine says will not remain whole forever (eventually, the wicked will be cut away and only the righteous will remain). The third rule is about grace and law, or about the difference between good works and faith, but Augustine says that Ticonius’s reasoning was confused and heretical on this point. The fourth rule is about species versus genus, or the general versus the particular. Augustine explains that specific things mentioned in scripture can also have a wider or more general meaning at times.
The fifth rule is about the use of time and numbers in the Bible, which are, as Augustine explains, sometimes used to denote spiritual significance instead of a literal way of reckoning dates or duration. The sixth rule applies to chronology, how in the Bible “certain occurrences are so related, that the narrative appears to be following the order of time, or the continuity of events, when it really goes back without mentioning it to previous occurrences” (287). Augustine says that the reader must therefore pay careful attention in order to correctly follow biblical chronology. The seventh and final rule is about the devil, who has fallen from heaven and is now drawing other sinners and misguided believers to him.
Towards the end of the Book, Augustine celebrates the Catholic Church as the new, universal Israel, which has the power to unite believers of all ethnicities and nations in one faith and under one authority.
Book 3 Analysis
In speaking about the difficulties of interpreting figurative language, Augustine emphasizes that figurative language plays a very important role in instructing believers in the faith. Not only does it offer a challenge that can serve as a spiritual purification, but its symbolic nature can also help believers learn how to rise above what is literal and earthbound to what is higher and more spiritual. As Augustine writes, “[I]t is surely a miserable slavery of the soul to take signs for things, and to be unable to lift the eye of the mind above what is corporeal and created, that it may drink in eternal light” (217). Thus, learning how to recognize figurative language and interpret its “secondary signification” brings the believer closer to God (217).
Augustine’s discussions about the differences between Old Testament morality and New Testament morality—and the contrast he draws between the literal Israel of the Jews and the spiritual Israel of the Catholic Church—are instructive. First, by acknowledging the discrepancies between the customs of biblical times and contemporary practices, Augustine seeks to diffuse any moral objections believers might make when encountering the Old Testament scriptures directly for themselves. Augustine reframes Old Testament morality as necessary and God-ordained at that time due to the historical circumstances: “For many things which were done as duties at that time [e.g., polygamy] cannot be done now except through lust” (253). Augustine thus seeks to recontextualize the more morally objectionable portions of the Old Testament by urging his readers to regard them as acceptable in the past but not applicable to contemporary Christian believers.
Augustine’s discussion about the “spiritual Israel” (279) is important because it reveals Augustine’s ideal of the Roman Catholic Church, a church that can be “without spot or wrinkle, gathered out of all nations, and destined to reign forever with Christ” and which is “in itself the land of the blessed, the land of the living” (279). In contrast to the historical, geographical Israel, the spiritual Israel of the church can belong (in theory) to all people of all nations, becoming universal and transcendent as opposed to insular and specific. Augustine’s celebration of this ideal reiterates his belief in the ultimate triumph of the Catholic Church, while also emphasizing for his readers his strong commitment to the idea of the universal applicability of the Christian faith.
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By Augustine of Hippo
