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| Introductory Note by the Editor
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Introductory Note by the Editor.
The four
books of St. Augustin On Christian Doctrine (De Doctrina
Christiana, iv libri) are a compend of exegetical theology to
guide the reader in the understanding and interpretation of the
Sacred Scriptures, according to the analogy of faith. The first
three books were written a.d. 397; the
fourth was added 426.
He speaks of it in his
Retractations, Bk. ii., chap. 4, as follows:
“Finding that the books on
Christian Doctrine were not finished, I thought it better to
complete them before passing on to the revision of others.
Accordingly, I completed the third book, which had been written as
far as the place where a quotation is made from the Gospel about
the woman who took leaven and hid it in three measures of meal till
the whole was leavened.1702
I added also the last book, and
finished the whole work in four books [in the year 426]: the
first three affording aids to the interpretation of Scripture, the
last giving directions as to the mode of making known our
interpretation. In the second book,1703
I made a mistake as to the
authorship of the book commonly called the Wisdom of Solomon. For
I have since learnt that it is not a well-established fact, as I
said it was, that Jesus the son of Sirach, who wrote the book of
Ecclesiasticus, wrote this book also: on the contrary, I have
ascertained that it is altogether more probable that he was not the
author of this book. Again, when I said, ‘The authority of the
Old Testament is contained within the limits of these forty-four
books,’1704
I used the
phrase ‘Old Testament’ in accordance with ecclesiastical
usage. But the apostle seems to restrict the application of the
name ‘Old Testament’ to the law which was given on Mount
Sinai.1705
And in
what I said as to St. Ambrose having, by his knowledge of
chronology, solved a great difficulty, when he showed that Plato
and Jeremiah were contemporaries,1706
| 1706 Book. ii. chap. 28. See p.
547. | my memory betrayed me. What that
great bishop really did say upon this subject may be seen in the
book which he wrote, ‘On Sacraments or Philosophy.’”1707
| 1707 This book is among the lost works
of Ambrose. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
