49. The Literal Meaning ofGenesis 1, 20. 40.
1 66 The Literal Meaning ofGenesis
A milestone was reached in the interpretation of Genesis when Augustine recognized that the spreading of God's work over six days was simply a literary garb and that the author did not intend to give a scientific description of the act of creation. Anyone who reads the interpretation of the creation story that is given in this work can only marvel at the strained exegeses that have been proposed right down into the twentieth century in the efforts at understanding the literary form of the six-day story of creation.
Despite his respect for the rights ofhuman reason and for the results of objec tive science, the bishop ofHippo resolutely emphasized the primacy of the truths ofrevelation. He warned the faithful against letting themselves be blinded by the reputation of the secular sciences, against succumbing to a kind of faith in science, and against feeling a disinterest in or even a revulsion against the sacred scriptures: "Some of the weaker brothers and sisters ... are in danger of going astray more seriously when they hear these godless people holding forth expertly and fluently on the 'music of the spheres,' or on any questions you care to mention about the elements of this cosmos. They wilt and lose heart, putting these pundits before themselves, and while regarding them as great authorities, they turn back with a weary distaste to the books of salutary godliness, and can scarcely bring themselves to touch the volumes they should be devouring with delight."49
The Literal Meaning of Genesis is an impressive testimony to the way in which Augustine lovingly immersed himself in the scriptures. For he was convinced that their very first pages had in store answers to humanity's great questions, answers which the most exact sciences and their methods could not give.
49. The Literal Meaning ofGenesis 1, 20. 40.