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Monday, June 17, 2013

It's not rocket science really...

I have to confess I've never been deeply into Augustine (that's 4th century St Augustine of Hippo  I'm talking about) apart from the usual general knowledge gained in theological study.  But in another blog I follow (Red Dress Theology) I was very interested to learn some of the things Augustine said about scripture. Here's an excerpt from Chelle's discussion of Augustine's On Christian Doctrine with a couple of bits underlined by me:


"Interestingly, he [Augustine] says that because true knowledge of God is held internally in the human person, the scripture is only a tool that God uses to stir up that truth within individual human beings and scripture is, therefore, theoretically unnecessary if God decides to reveal Godself directly to a person’s ‘heart’.

Book 3 suggests strategies for interpreting ambiguous passages in scripture: it’s not rocket science really, but it’s surprising how much we need to be reminded of these simple strategies when we encounter confusion in our understanding of the bible.  First and foremost, Augustine argues, we must work out what is figurative and what is literal.  Common sense says that if the text is nonsense when taken literally, then it must be figurative.  The rule of faith suggests that if all knowledge helps us to love God and our neighbour – if a text taken literally cannot lead us into love, then it must be figurative!  If the text still doesn’t make sense, then we look at context, including the immediate context of the passage within it’s text, the whole canonical context, and the context of ourselves as reader.  Ultimately, there is nothing in scripture which does not lead towards the double love of God and neighbour, so that is the ultimate standard by which all interpretations must abide, for love is the telos, the goal of scripture, just as love is the goal of everything God does, is and communicates to God’s creation!"

If you want to read the whole post click here. Thanks Chelle!