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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo.
(De doctrina Christiana. English] On Christian teaching / Saint Augustine; translated with an introduction and notes by R. P. H. Green
(Oxford world's classics)
1. Apologetics—Early works to 1800. 2. Bible—Criticism, interpretation, etc.—History—Early church, ca. 30-600.
3. Theology—History—Early church, ca. 30-600. _I. Title.
Il. Series. BR65.A6552E5 1997 230'.14—de21 9640146
ISBN 978-0-19-954063-1
Printed in Great Britain by
Clays Ltd, St Ives ple
Contents
Introduction
Note on the Text
Select Bibliography
Dates
ON CHRISTIAN TEACHING
Explanatory Notes
Index of Biblical Passages Cited
General Index
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2023 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/onchristianteachO000augu
Introduction
Aims and circumstances
When Augustine was ordained presbyter in the African town of Hippo in 391 one of the first things he did was to ask for time off— time to devote himself to intensive study of the Bible. It was just five years since his well-known experience of conversion in the Milanese garden, prompted by a command to pick up and read the scripture. From then on he saw with ever-increasing clarity the need to immerse himself in the 'profundity' and 'riches' of scripture, just as he had dedicated himself (without asking for time off from his teaching duties) to the study of philosophical texts upon his arrival in Milan a few years earlier. One may gauge the scale of the task of study and interpretation which he saw before him from the long list of commentaries and sermons which he eventually left to posterity, with their amazing capacity to synthesize diverse passages of scripture and to elicit, often from obscure if not rebarbative passages, spiritual truths or lessons for himself and others. Yet we must not be so impressed by his later achievements, or by the colourful way in which he often expressed angry feelings about the 'pagan' educational system of his day, as to lose sight of the fact that he had spent half his life as a teacher of secular studies. There is a great deal of the ancient schoolmaster and professor in Augustine: a conviction of the importance of detail, a devotion to what he sees as consistency of interpretation, a reverence for canonical texts as authorities and 'classics' (though classical texts were never seen as sacred in quite the same way as scripture was). Augustine owed a great deal to the system which he criticized so trenchantly.
When he began writing On Christian Teaching in the mid-390s he had already embarked on detailed expositions of Genesis, Psalms, and Paul's letters to the Romans and Galatians. Its purpose was to systematize for the benefit of others the observations and principles that had become apparent to him in his study of the Bible, and to enable readers of scripture to be their own interpreters. As he explains in the Preface, his task is parallel to that of a teacher of the alphabet: one of giving fundamental instruction so
Vill Introduction that others can understand the texts they pick up and read. The word 'teaching' in the title applies primarily to the task of teaching Christianity to oneself and then to others; but it also embraces the teachings of Christianity which may be drawn from scripture. Since for all but a special few (1. 93-4) it is the scriptures which lead Christians to their goal, the work is a guide to the discovery and communication of what is taught in the Bible.
It has often been seen as a manual for preachers (and that is certainly one of its main contributions to Western culture), but Augustine does not forget other kinds of communication, such as debates, books, and letters (4. 102). He nowhere makes it unambiguously clear whether the work is directed solely to the clergy, and in particular bishops, who were involved in preaching, though in 4. 8 he refers to 'those whom we desire to be educated for the good of the church', and in that book as a whole the needs of preachers seem to be uppermost. But it is surely not for all preachers, for he assumes that the communicators have considerable knowledge already, or the means to gain it, and much of his advice would be beyond the comprehension of most preachers of his time.' (They might be more reassured by his contention that using the sermons of others was morally above board.) He is writing for 'those with the will and the wit to learn' (Preface, 1), and evidently did not intend to exclude any who could profit. He was certainly always sensitive to the needs of the laity, and ready to help them with problems they encountered in their study of the Bible.
It has also been seen as a manifesto for a specifically Christian culture, not least because of what it says about the value of the learning available outside the church, or, as we would say, pagan or classical culture. There is no doubt that this is a major theme of the work, and one of its major points of interest, but that was not its prime justification. Augustine was not, as used to be thought, constructing a counterpart to the classical culture selfconsciously cherished by many pagan Romans of his time. The significance of the title should in fact be found in the various injunctions of the so-called Pastoral Epistles to seek and make use of 'sound teaching' (or 'doctrine', as the Authorized Version has
'C. Schaublin, 'De doctrina Christiana: A Classic of Western Culture?', in D. W. H. Arnold and P. Bright (eds.), De doctrina christiana: A Classic of Western Culture (Notre Dame, Ind., 1995), 54.
Introduction ix it); these passages are recalled frequently, and in the final sentence of the work he significantly situates his work within that context.
There is probably no need to seek more particular reasons for this 'great and arduous' undertaking than the need to help Christians learn from the Bible. The work is not polemical in any way, although one can detect faint echoes of controversies which loomed large in Augustine's spiritual career. For example, issues such as the apparent acceptance of polygamy in the Old Testament, and the adultery of David (treated at some length in
3. 68-72), formed part of the arsenal of the Manichees or followers of Mani—a popular and dynamic religion on the edges of Christianity whose mission was to proclaim the permanent conflict of Light and Dark, or Good and Evil, and which saw the Old Testament, in contrast to the New, as far too full of the material or evil element to possess spiritual authority. But in fact neither the Manichees themselves nor their distinctive and sometimes colourful tenets are mentioned in this work. Augustine does mention the Donatists—who over the years absorbed so much of his energy as he sought to combat their claim to constitute the true and pure Christian church—when he introduces The Book of Rules of Tyconius at the end of Book 3 (92 ff.); but he treats him rather as a maverick than as a heretic, stressing the fact that Tyconius too had wielded his pen against the Donatists. Such reservations as Augustine has he expresses with restraint, and his attitude is generally positive. He is certainly not attacking Tyconius, though it may well have been the appearance of his work some years before that showed him the possibilities of a hermeneutical treatise and encouraged him to provide something better. The suggestion has been made that Augustine wrote his book at the request of his friend the Catholic bishop Aurelius (see Ep. 41. 2), but although Aurelius was involved in some way with Augustine's project—at least Augustine asked his opinion several times, evidently without success—it is unlikely that he needed any such prompting.
We do not know precisely when Augustine began the work: perhaps it was in 395." It has been reasonably inferred from 2. 146,
2 For fuller detail, see R. P. H. Green (ed.), Augustine: De Doctrina Christiana (Oxford Early Christian Texts; Oxford, 1995), xi—xil.
x Introduction where he mentions various Christian writers who have exploited pagan education but declares that he is omitting others who are alive, that he wrote this before the death of Ambrose in April 397. But the short chapter about this work in the Retractations (a brief review of his writings that he made in the last years of his life) seems also to imply that the work followed after one that he addressed to Ambrose's successor as bishop in Milan, so he seems to have continued past that date. Anyhow, as Augustine himself tells us, it was broken off in midstream, at 3. 78; and what follows was not written until some thirty years later. Various reasons have been suggested for the interruption, including illness (he is known to have been covered by debilitating sores at about that time) and writer's block, brought on by the sheer volume of writing he had undertaken (Augustine was a frenetic writer as well as a voracious reader). There were infinite demands on the time of such a talented and energetic pastor, and further speculation may be unprofitable; but it is just at this time that Augustine began his
Confessions, which gives an intimate examination of his relationship to God as it developed from infancy, and was perhaps designed to defend his meteoric rise in the Christian church. It is indeed fascinating and instructive to read the works side by side. One can observe how the Confessions enacts graphically and personally many of the feelings and insights that On Christian
Teaching presents in a more abstract way: the ascent (by reasoning and contemplation) to God, the wise and unchangeable one, from the world that is changeable and at best incompletely wise; the difficulties presented to the traveller on this upward path by the weight of sexual inclinations and other habits; the 'pacts' or contracts that for better or worse bind human communities and underlie their distinctive cultures. Most conspicuously, the Confessions purports to portray an insider's experience of the educational disciplines which Augustine in Book 2 of On Christian
Teaching calls burdensome and valueless, and it expresses his contempt for the culture of rhetorical showmanship to which he will briefly but scathingly revert in Book 4.
It is no easier to give a definitive answer to what is perhaps a more pertinent question: why did the completion of this work take so long? Augustine's comment in the Retractations rather suggests that he lost sight of it, but it is not likely that he came to consider it
Introduction xi unimportant, even if it had to take second place to his sustained attacks on movements which he saw as dangerously schismatic or heretical, or to the completion of vast works such as City of God or On the Trinity. tis more plausible to attribute the delay to an appreciation that there were issues involved which could not be adequately covered in what he envisaged as a small book. When he eventually resumed work, his approach was rather less discursive than before. He was probably able to make use of some notes he had left (this would explain a certain bittiness in that part of Book 3); these he expanded, before adding a condensed exposition of Tyconius' Book of Rules. Book 4 deals with the presentation or communication of what one has learnt, but unless the neat initial division (1. 1) into 'discovery' and presentation is a later addition this important part of the work was part of his plan from the outset. No really convincing differences of substance between the two sections have been detected, though that is not to say that Augustine would have written the same in the late 390s as he eventually did in his old age.
Summary and significance
The short preface that Augustine wrote is probably part of the earlier portion, although this has been disputed; it may therefore be reasonably assumed to present his original conception and justification of the work. He anticipates three kinds of critic: those who cannot understand his advice, those who fail to apply it, and those who consider it unnecessary, because illumination should come directly from God. He directs his attention principally to the third kind, and in refutation appeals to their own experience of learning and the many occasions recorded in scripture when humans were taught through human agency. Augustine then begins his main task by dividing his subject into two parts: the discovery of what must be learnt from scripture, and the presentation of it, or in other words the study of its content and the proclamation of its message. To understand the teaching of scripture we need a knowledge both of 'things' and of 'signs'. The subject of Book 1 will be things gua things (for things can be signs, and vice versa). Human beings, themselves a kind of thing, should 'enjoy' some things or cleave to them in love, and 'use' others, relating or subordinating them to the attainment of what they love. The xi Introduction proper object of enjoyment is God, who is universally (but often imperfectly) acknowledged in one way or another.
In order to enjoy him, to behold the light of the divine Trinity continually, the human eye must be purged, and we must travel to God along his chosen way, accepting the carefully designed means of healing offered by the incarnate Christ and taking full advantage of the necessary support provided by his church. Before going further it is interesting to note how this sketch of the Christian life— with the vital exceptions of the roles of Christ and the church—is indebted to concepts prominent in the writings of the philosopher Plotinus. Plotinus, who flourished a century or so before Augustine, was the outstanding member of a philosophical movement devoted to the study of Plato; Augustine and others called them Platonists but modern scholars refer to them as Neoplatonists, in recognition of their impressively distinctive philosophical system. (At the end of Book 2 Augustine admits their value to the Christian, and indeed it used to be said, with the exaggeration that often accompanies an important insight, that he had been converted to Neoplatonism and not Christianity.) The remainder of the book is devoted to giving answers to various problems that arise from this understanding of love in terms of use and enjoyment. Should humans use each other or enjoy each other? In what way should they love themselves? Which of the things to be used should be loved? Is it possible to hate oneself? Can all people be loved equally in practice? Does the commandment to love one's neighbour apply to the angels? Does God, in loving us, enjoy us or use us? The importance of these careful discussions is that the two commandments to love God and to love our neighbour as ourselves are 'the fulfilment and end of the law', and so our interpretations of scripture—which cannot lie, although we may be misled as we try to interpret it—should be ones which serve to build up this love. Its importance in the wider context of Augustine's general thinking on love is rather less; it has been shown that the distinctive analysis of love in terms of enjoyment and use was never repeated by Augustine. In retrospect the book must be regarded as experimental and inconclusive.' None the less it remains a careful and sensitive discussion of various problems in this area of Biblical ethics.
O'Donovan, The Problem of Self-Love in St. Augustine (New Haven, 1980), 26.
Introduction Xi
In Book 2 Augustine takes up the treatment of signs qua signs. The apparently simple analysis with which the book begins has in fact been described as the first piece of work to deserve the name of semiotics (though the degree of its originality vis-a-vis classical philosophy has been much debated). Certainly this aspect has contributed greatly to modern interest in this work and others in which his sign-theory is applied. Attention has also been drawn to the way in which his view of signs, as developed in Books 2 and 3, enables him to explore the boundaries and interrelations of communities or subcultures which share particular symbolic systems.* Of particular note in the opening chapters are Augustine's definition of a sign, his distinction between 'natural' and 'given' signs, and the part played in the latter by intention or will. Words are a particular kind of sign, and one which is particularly problematic in the Bible not only because of the diversity of languages but also because God in his wisdom has provided a level of difficulty appropriate to the needs of the human mind. Problems arise either from unknown signs or from ambiguous ones, and both these kinds of signs may be either literal or metaphorical (figurative). Book 2 will deal with literal signs, beginning with the former category. What do foreign words in scripture, or imperfectly translated Latin ones, really mean? The serious student, equipped with Christian virtues as well as a wide knowledge of the canonical scriptures (here Augustine sets out the canon best known to him), must be prepared to learn the relevant languages or at least to consult experts, and to examine the original versions and the various available translations. Sometimes hyperliteral and stilted translations have more to offer than those written in good Latin. In order to understand metaphorical signs that may be unknown, one also needs a knowledge of the various things referred to in scripture. It may, for example, take analogies from the natural world—how exactly do we set about being as wise as serpents?—or express its meaning in terms of number and music. So the study of music for this purpose is quite proper; the pagan fancies associated with the Muses should not lead to a contempt of music itself. At this point the investigation might
See R. A. Markus, 'Signs, Communication and Communities in Augustine's De doctrina Christiana', in Arnold and Bright, De doctrina christiana, 97-108.
X1V | Introduction have degenerated into a list of bits and pieces of 'general knowledge' (or abstruse knowledge, as general knowledge often is), had not Augustine changed tack and put the investigation on a systematic footing. In fact he makes a classification of the arts and sciences which is of major importance. The various arts and sciences are either human institutions or divine ones which humans have observed and developed. Of human institutions some are superstitious, like astrology, and their significance is due to pacts or contracts with demons; these must be strenuously avoided. Of those that are not superstitious, some are superfluous and self-indulgent, like the study of representational art, and therefore a dangerous waste of time for the Christian, but others are necessary to life, like a knowledge of weights and measures, the alphabet, or shorthand. The latter are not to be avoided, but used with due care, as may be necessary. Divinely instituted disciplines include history (which narrates, or perhaps to Augustine is the past, which cannot be changed), various sciences such as medicine and astronomy (though the borderline with superstition is a difficult one to locate), practical arts such as joinery and navigation, and various arts 'involving the mind', among which logic and rhetoric are pre-eminent. Philosophy is added, almost (it seems) as an afterthought, perhaps in recognition of Augustine's personal experience. All these must be studied in moderation and with a humble acknowledgement that knowledge puffs up but love builds up, and that the treasures of pagan books are tiny when compared with those of scripture. This last analogy— comparing the wealth of scripture with that of King Solomon— has been rather overshadowed by the more famous one of 'spoiling the Egyptians', echoed in the Confessions and by many later writers. Like the Hebrews leaving Egypt, Christians who leave pagan society should take with them those riches which they can legitimately use. In Augustine's case, these cultural riches consisted predominantly of philosophy (he was very aware of his Platonist heritage, but probably less so of what he owed to the Stoics through Cicero and other channels), and rhetoric: Book 4 shows the extent of what he owed to classical rhetorical theory, and the whole treatise, on almost every page, the way in which he put his experience of learning and teaching rhetoric to practical use.
Augustine's analysis of the traditional curriculum, perhaps the
Introduction Xv most systematic appraisal of it that was made in antiquity, is an interesting mixture of the practical and the theoretical. On the one hand he recommends the compilation, or wider distribution, of manuals on such things as Hebrew names or botanical terms found in the Bible, as if he is thinking of the needs of Christians already educated; on the other, he seems to be trying to work out ab initio what kinds of knowledge and expertise it might be useful for Christian children to acquire. Yet it is not exhaustive: it is notable that he omits all mention of grammatice, which was studied in the school curriculum for several years before rhetoric and included not only systematic formal grammar but also careful study of the canonical Latin poets. It is clear, especially if the Confessions is taken into account, that Augustine had reservations both about grammar as conventionally taught and about classical poetry; but he would not have hesitated to place the discipline among those divinely instituted. Language, and so grammar, was part of the divine creation, and poetry is found in the Bible, as Augustine recognizes. He himself is not immune to the power of poetry, as is shown by his discussion of imagery from the Song of Songs (2. 11-13), and by the occasional reminiscences in his writing of phrases from the classical poets Virgil, Lucan, and Persius.
Having dealt with 'unknown' or unfamiliar signs in Book 2, Augustine turns to 'ambiguous' ones in Book 3. Literal words or expressions may cause difficulty if there are uncertainties of punctuation and pronunciation, so due attention must be given to these. Figurative expressions require even more; to take literally what has a spiritual significance is a mark of slavery, conspicuous in the Old Testament Jews, though less serious there than in pagan society with its much worse confusion of sign and thing. But there is an opposite danger, that of taking as figurative what should be taken literally; a danger aggravated by the tendency of people to judge past ages according to their own familiar standards and not by the ethical principles of the Bible, which are the nourishing of love and the overcoming of lust. To help in deciding whether an expression is literal or figurative Augustine presents various guidelines. Cruel words in the mouth of God or a saint will refer literally to the destruction of lust; wicked words or deeds issuing from one whose sanctity is commended will be xvi Introduction figurative. Such a person should not be censured, especially by those who are ignorant of the conditions prevailing in former times. An expression which forbids wickedness or enjoins kindness is not figurative; but one which apparently does enjoin wickedness (drinking a man's blood, for example) or forbid kindness will be. One must beware of taking as figurative certain commands (such as castrating oneself or giving a daughter in marriage) which scripture addresses exclusively to particular categories of people, or the non-condemnatory description of practices such as polygamy which though now unacceptable were not wrong in former days. It is a sign of depravity to censure such things, and even worse to do them.
Augustine had carefully summed up and apparently completed this section to his satisfaction before he broke off, but there is much that is unclear. Later writers in general found this the least rewarding of the four books. Are we dealing exclusively with moral precepts, and not with descriptive phrases such as 'the anger of God' and 'crucifying the flesh', which he mentions once (3. 40) ina very brief parenthesis? How do we distinguish between a moral absolute and a practice or precept justified by particular circumstances? If adultery may be justified in a society in the Old Testament, what about cruelty? How exactly may a passage be both literal and figurative, as he says (in 3. 73) that everything, or nearly everything, in the Old Testament is? When we examine a passage from all angles in order to find the true meaning (3. 76) what do we actually do, and what procedures are legitimate?
The rest of the book offers assistance in working out what a particular figurative word or expression means. A particular word will not always have the same figurative sense. Easy passages should be used to illustrate the obscure. If a meaning is reached which was not intended by the human author of scripture, it is not necessarily wrong. Scripture in fact—this is addressed to the literati—contains innumerable tropes. At this point Augustine brings in the seven rules of Tyconius, the Donatist exegete, in which he clearly found much of value, though less than Tyconius had claimed for them. He rejects the third ('On the promises and the Law', in Tyconius' formulation), as being a doctrinal problem rather than a rule of interpretation, but summarizes the other six, using Tyconius' shorter examples to show how they should be
Introduction XVli applied. The fourth ('On species and genus') he seems to misunderstand when interpreting it of whole and part rather than type and antitype, and there is controversy about his understanding of the sixth ('On Recapitulation'), where Tyconius himself is puzzlingly brief. Augustine argues that these rules are essentially figurative, because 'they cause one thing to be understood through another', but one might better describe them as revealing latent modes of transition from one topic to another: from the head to the body (as in the first, referring to Christ, and the seventh, referring to the devil), or from the bad to the good (as in the second, which Augustine would have rather called 'On the mixed church').
In Book 4, after announcing the second part of his project, on presentation, and warning his readers not to expect a rhetorical treatise of the traditional kind, Augustine issues a rousing appeal to Christians not to shrink from using rhetoric in defence of the faith: this is neutral ground, which Christian speakers must occupy. They do not need a traditional education, with its surfeit of rules, but can acquire eloquence much more quickly by listening to eloquent Christians and imitating them; there is no lack of Christian speakers and writers who show the necessary combination of eloquence and wisdom. For the speaker who does not succeed in acquiring eloquence, close adherence to the words of scripture is an acceptable option. Augustine then raises the question whether the scriptures are eloquent as well as wise, and maintains that they do have their own special kind of eloquence, which he proceeds to illustrate by analysing (principally in terms of sentence structure) a passage from Paul and one from Amos. The Christian speaker is warned not to imitate scripture in those passages where it has been made deliberately obscure, because in addressing a popular audience the need for intelligibility is paramount. In the interests of his listeners a speaker may even need to choose colloquial usages that offend the ears of the educated. A discussion of the importance of holding an audience's attention leads Augustine to introduce and explain the Ciceronian doctrine of the orator's three aims—to teach, to delight, and to move—which he later rephrases as 'to be listened to with understanding, with pleasure, and with obedience' (4. 87). With due allowance for the danger of overdoing the entertainment, the
XVIiil Introduction
Christian speaker should make these aims his own. They are then combined with another Ciceronian triad—the eloquent speaker will speak of small things in the restrained style, moderate things in the mixed style, and important things in the grand style—but this is found to be inappropriate in the ecclesiastical context, where there are no matters of minor importance. Augustine then illustrates the three styles by means of excerpts from the writings of Paul, Cyprian, and Ambrose, and shows how they reflect different aims. But within an address the three styles may, indeed must, be combined, in whatever ways context or contrast may demand. For Augustine, unlike other orators, the aim of giving pleasure is the least important of the three, and he also stresses that while using any one style the speaker must be aware of all three aims. The book ends by emphasizing requirements of a specifically Christian nature: the integrity of the speaker's life, a concern with the truth rather than with wrangling, and, whether the speaker is about to deliver his own sermon or one composed by someone else (as he may quite legitimately do), the need to pray for words that will communicate effectively.
Book 4, with its wealth of observation both general and particular, has probably been the most influential part of On Christian
Teaching. The Ciceronian framework is clear, and numerous details show how well Augustine knew the relevant writings. (There are various, less obvious borrowings from Cicero in other books too.) But a catalogue of his allusions would be a poor guide. Augustine is far from accepting Ciceronian theory unreservedly. Just as he heavily adapted the rhetorical notion of 'discovery' when outlining his programme, so here he treats Cicero as he sees fit. Indeed, a modern reader might well ask why he relies so much on Cicero in the first place. The answer is not that Augustine is eager to show his learning or the effectiveness with which he can deconstruct a pagan classic—as may be the case in other works— but that Cicero was the embodiment, imperfect but by far the best available, of the divinely instituted truths of rhetoric. Some of what Cicero said is as immovable for Augustine as the truths of logic or mathematics; some is open to modification. Augustine is not toying with his classical predecessor or showing an exaggerated deference but carefully and seriously attempting to sift his advice—a good example of the careful examination of traditional
Introduction X1x disciplines recommended in Book 2. His discriminating blend of classical and Christian precept contains much that is valuable. To the ordinary preacher he has given reassurance of the eloquence of the Bible, the power of prayer, and the reasonableness of using borrowed material, as well as salutary instruction on the importance of keeping basic goals in view and appreciating the needs of an audience. To the educated Christian he has provided, on top of this, a delineation of what is permanently useful in the art of rhetoric, a strong legitimation of its use, and a clear demonstration of its presence both in the scriptures and in the Church Fathers. That Augustine should not only explicitly accept, but also warmly embrace, rhetoric in this way is an important landmark in the history of Christianity; but given that Christians had not in fact been slow to do this, and could perhaps hardly have done otherwise, the book's most important long-term effect may have been not so much to convince Christians of the legitimacy of rhetoric as to reassure them of the acceptability of scriptural style in a world still delighted by the influence of its classical heritage.
Reception and influence
What makes a classic? Some works take their place on the shelf immediately, and stay there, perhaps unmoved for centuries. Some earn the title by the grandeur of their conception or the thoroughness with which they pursue it, or both: such is the City of God. Some works, even if by some misfortune they were to be lost or forgotten, would reconstitute themselves as classics in any reasonably sympathetic age: such is the Confessions. For On Christian Teaching, admittedly the least known of Augustine's three major works which deal in some way with the relation of Christianity to classical culture, we may immediately assert a claim on two general grounds (or three, if the organizing of a conference solely devoted to it is a good criterion'). First, the number of manuscripts known to have existed in the Carolingian Renaissance (a good vantage point, since under the inspiration of Charlemagne and his scholars, book production in western
Held in the University of Notre Dame, 4-7 April 1991. Its two-volume proceedings, especially the second volume, have contributed a great deal to the following pages.
xx Introduction
Europe had begun again in earnest), when its diffusion was surpassed among works of Augustine only by the City of God. It was considered well worth the cost and effort of transcribing, and it was widely available to learned readers. Secondly, one can assemble an impressive list of leading medieval and Renaissance authorities who not only knew the work—it is not just our footnote-happy age that seeks to impress through citations—but read and used it, including Cassiodorus, Raban Maur, Abelard, Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, and Erasmus. In the fifth century there is no clear evidence of its use or popularity, but this is not unexpected. It is often not possible to trace the fortunes of an ancient work immediately after its publication, and in this case other circumstances may have contributed to the silence. By the time of his death Augustine had written so much on the Bible, and gained such authority, that the task of independent enquiry may have seemed daunting or unnecessary to less talented Christians. The conditions of the time, with the barbarian Vandals seizing the capital of Roman Africa within a year of his death, and the situation in other areas of the Latin-speaking West little better, did not encourage study.
If Augustine in Book 4 was seeking to vindicate the eloquence of scripture by showing how much it shared with traditional forms of rhetoric, some later interpreters, in a world where scriptural thought and expression rapidly became the norm, exploited this common ground to the advantage of the increasingly threatened pagan classics. This is clear in the work of the senator Cassiodorus, who, in the sixth century, compiled for his monks in Vivarium a syllabus of works concerned with divine and human learning (his Jnstitutiones). He is the first of many to use the rallying cry of 'spoiling the Egyptians' to validate the study of pagan classics. Other quotations made by Cassiodorus—who tends to excerpt rather than comment—include advice on how to study scripture. A less memorable testimony is that of the abbot Eugippius who, also in the sixth century, compiled a large but unambitious collection of more than three hundred sayings of Augustine. In the seventh century the Spanish bishop Isidore did likewise in his so-called Etymologies, albeit with a wider aim and a much wider range of sources than either of the aforementioned. Evidence of close engagement with our work is as yet non-existent.
Introduction XX1
The popularity of the work in the Carolingian Renaissance has already been mentioned; the travels of manuscripts can be mapped, and the palace library is known to have had a copy. Books have other uses besides being read or keeping scribes quiet; Angilbert of Corbie sent a copy as a gift to Charlemagne's successor Louis the Pious. The tradition of mere compilation continued, with Raban Maur of Fulda copying several passages in his treatise On the Instruction of Clerics, but the work is used more imaginatively, and in a way which foreshadows later development, in a rhetorical treatise presented to Adalram of Salzburg in the midninth century. Its anonymous writer, though following the master closely in many respects, was not afraid to delete the 'mixed' style (here indeed he might be taking his lead from Augustine), vary the terminology, and make other changes.°
In the so-called twelfth-century Renaissance On Christian Teaching does not appear particularly prominent, even in the Biblical exegetes of the school of St Victor. There is, however, an outstanding exception in Peter Abelard, one of the most lively minds of his age, to whom the work clearly appealed. He quotes Book 4 prominently in the introduction to his famous Yes and No, in which he boldly set out apparently conflicting judgements from the Church Fathers on various theological issues. A motif from
1. 27 (God, like a good doctor, applies bandages of an appropriate kind to our wounds) is used in one of his hymns to the Paraclete. Most typical of all, perhaps, he claims Augustine's authority for the importance he gives to logic in his Introduction to Theology, where he attempts to use human logic as a bait to lead men and women to theological truth. For Abelard logic (which Augustine had said runs through scripture like a nervous system through the human body) was the treasure of the Egyptians; for Thomas Aquinas in the following century it was philosophy in general. A recent article has shown very carefully how Thomas used On Christian Teaching in his great Summa and in other work, quoting him on such matters as the nature of scriptural language (how clear passages exist to explain the obscure) and the way to distinguish between literal and figurative expressions. Other scholastics of the time, such as Henry of Ghent, draw copiously from
6 K. Forstner, Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 4 (1967), 61-7.
XxIi Introduction
On Christian Teaching. The work's contribution to thirteenthcentury treatments of theology is a respected and prominent one.'
Some two centuries later On Christian Teaching was an early beneficiary of printing, and indeed the first book of Augustine to be so honoured. Its fourth book (in fact that was all that emerged at this stage) was seen as a potential best-seller for the aspiring preacher, and it evidently was one for a few years. The work seems to have made little stir among Italian humanists, who for all their interest in teaching and rhetoric quote it but rarely.* Erasmus, however, was an enthusiast, not surprisingly given his particular interest in the Christian Fathers who adapted the Greco-Roman classics; one work that shows this influence is his popular Enchiridion.? George Buchanan, the Scottish humanist influenced by the Erasmian atmosphere in early sixteenth-century Paris, quoted Augustine's sign-theory to defend his position on the Eucharist when arraigned before the Spanish Inquisition. But Augustine was the preserve of no single religious party: after the Council of Trent we find a number of homiletic works, modelled on Book 4, produced under the aegis of Charles Borromeo in Milan.
To pursue the fortunes of Augustine himself, let alone a particular work, through the religious and philosophical disputes and debates of the following centuries would be an arduous and intricate task. On Christian Teaching duly took its place in the drab but invaluable opera omnia editions of the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, and was slow to benefit from the subsequent age of critical monograph and translation. One sometimes feels that earlier in the present century the work was quoted (especially in literary contexts) rather than studied, but the present generation has seen a total reversal, in the fortunes of this particular work as in approaches to Augustine himself. Today's Augustine remains a man of intense spirituality and striking insight, but he is also a
7 J. Wawrykow, 'Reflections on the Place of the De doctrina christiana in High Scholastic Discussions of Theology', in E. D. English (ed.), Reading and Wisdom:
The De doctrina christiana of Augustine in the Middle Ages (Notre Dame, Ind., 1995),
99-125.
J. Monfasani, "The De doctrina Christiana and Renaissance Rhetoric', in English, Reading and Wisdom, 172-88.
° C. Bene, Erasme et St Augustin (Geneva, 1969), 183-6 and 433-48.
Introduction XXxill multi-dimensional human being; a man subject to great personal and professional pressures, struggling to make sense of his past and striving towards the future, and taking thought for his own flock and the whole church while seeking to do justice to his own great mind. Not the least attraction of On Christian Teaching is that this is the Augustine whom we see at work in it.
Note on the Text
The text used for this translation is the one presented in my edition in the Oxford Early Christian Texts series. For this work we have not only hundreds of medieval and later manuscripts but a manuscript unusually close to Augustine in time, which some have argued was dictated or even written by Augustine himself. But neither circumstance gives a cast-iron guarantee that the text is free of serious copying mistakes; early manuscripts are no less prone to such error than later ones, and once a mistake is made it is much more likely that it will be perpetuated by subsequent copying than corrected. So it should not be assumed that the text of this treatise is word-perfect; there are a few places where the argument is uncertain, and rather more where the Latin critic is not yet content.
In the course of time the text has acquired no fewer than three systems of numbering its paragraphs or sections. None of them is notably more valuable than the others as a guide to the argument, and so I have adopted for marginal references and for crossreferencing purposes the system which divides the text into the smallest sections, and is thus the most efficient. The other systems, which are older and more often used, appear as running heads.
Note on Biblical references. References to Psalms and the books generally known as 1 and 2 Samuel are provided in dual form. In the case of Psalms this is because there are two systems of numbering, one being that of the Hebrew text, which is followed by most available English versions, the other being that of the Greek and Latin translations. From Psalm 10 to Psalm 148 the Latin numbering known to Augustine is one less than that in Hebrew and English texts; Psalms 9 and 10 werea single Psalm for Augustine, as were Psalms 114 and 115, while our Psalms 116 and 147 were each two. It is therefore the second of the two references that is likely to be the one familiar to English readers. The books which Augustine knew as 3 and 4 Kings are generally known today as 1 and 2 Kings, and his 1 and 2 Kings as 1 and 2 Samuel; again the second of the references given is likely to be the familiar one.
Select Bibliography
Edition and Translation
Green, R. P. H., Augustine: De Doctrina Christiana (Oxford Early
Christian Texts; Oxford, 1995).
Biography of Augustine
Brown, P., Augustine of Hippo: A Biography (London, 1967). Chadwick, H., Augustine (Oxford, 1986). van der Meer, F., Augustine the Bishop (London, 1961).
Background
Bonnardiére, A.-M. (ed.), Saint Augustin et la Bible, iii (Bible de
Tous les Temps; Paris, 1986). Hagendahl, H., Augustine and the Laiin Classics, 2 vols. (Gothenburg, 1967). Kaster, R. A., Guardians of Language: The Grammarian and Society in Late Antiquity (Berkeley, 1988). Marrou, H.-I., Saint Augustin et la fin de la culture antique (Paris,
1938).
Criticism
Arnold, D. W. H., and Bright, P. (eds.), De doctrina christiana:
A Classic of Western Culture (Notre Dame, Ind., 1995). Kirwan, C., Augustine (London, 1989). Markus, R. A. (ed.), Collected Essays on Augustine (New Y ork, 1972). O'Donovan, O., The Problem of Self-Love in St. Augustine (New
Haven, 1980).
Other Works
Chadwick, H. (ed.), Saint Augustine: Confessions (Oxford, 1991). Clark, G., Augustine: The Confessions (Cambridge, 1993).
Influence
English, E. D. (ed.), Reading and Wisdom: The De doctrina christiana of Augustine in the Middle Ages (Notre Dame, Ind., 1995).
Dates
Augustine born at Thagaste in Numidia At school in Madauros Goes to Carthage Teaches at Thagaste; a 'hearer' of the Manichees Teaches at Carthage Goes to Rome Appointed professor of rhetoric at Milan, where he also reads 'Platonic books' and meets Ambrose Converted; retreats to Cassiciacum Baptized at Milan Ordained at Hippo Regius Begins On Christian Teaching Becomes bishop of Hippo Breaks off On Christian Teaching Writes Confessions Composes City of God Completes On Christian Teaching Death at Hippo
386 387 391 395? 395/6 397° 397 413-26 426/7 430
On Christian Teaching a
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PREFACE
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There are certain rules for interpreting the scriptures hicks as I am well aware, can usefully be passed on to those with an appetite for such study to enable them to progress not just by reading the work of others who have illuminated the obscurities of divine literature, but also by finding illumination themselves. hewind intention to communicate these rules to those withthe will/and the oS my Lord and God does not / withhol m me, as I wri e thoughts which he regularly supplies as I 'reflect on these matters. But before I begin it seems necessary for me to reply to those who are likely to criticize this undertaking, or who would be minded to do so if not placated in advance. If, even after this, there are criticisms from certain people, at least they will not succeed in misleading others or in diverting them from this valuable study into the idleness of ignorance, as they might have done had they not found them forearmed and forewarned.
Some people will criticize this work of mine because they have failed to understand the rules that I am about to give. Others, wishing to make use of what they have understood, will try to interpret the divine scriptures by means of these rules but will be unable to find illumination or to explain what they want to explain, and will therefore consider my efforts futile. Because they themselves get no help from this work, they will conclude that nobody can. A third class of critic* consists of those who either interpret the divine scriptures quite correctly or think they do. Because they see, or at least believe, that they have gained their ability to expound the holy books without recourse to any rules of the kind that I have now undertaken to give, they will clamour.that-these.rules are not needed by anybody, and that all worthwhile illumination of the difficulties of these texts can come by a special gift of God.
To all these critics I havea brief reply. Tsay to those who fail to understand what I write that it is not my fault that they do not understand. Suppose they wanted to see the new moon, or the old one, or a star that was very faint, and I pointed it out