Fisherman's Friend

On Christian Doctrine

edited by Philip Schaff · NPNF I

NPNF1-02. St. Augustine's City of God and Christian Doctrine

Contents (153 chapters)

  1. 1. Introductory Note by the Editor
  2. 2. Contents of Christian Doctrine
  3. 3. Preface
  4. 4. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — The Interpretation of Scripture Depends on the Discovery and Enunciation of the Meaning, and is to Be Undertaken in Dependence on God’s Aid.
  5. 5. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — What a Thing Is, and What A Sign.
  6. 6. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — Some Things are for Use, Some for Enjoyment.
  7. 7. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — Difference of Use and Enjoyment.
  8. 8. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — The Trinity the True Object of Enjoyment.
  9. 9. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — In What Sense God is Ineffable.
  10. 10. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — What All Men Understand by the Term God.
  11. 11. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — God to Be Esteemed Above All Else, Because He is Unchangeable Wisdom.
  12. 12. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — All Acknowledge the Superiority of Unchangeable Wisdom to that Which is Variable.
  13. 13. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — To See God, the Soul Must Be Purified.
  14. 14. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — Wisdom Becoming Incarnate, a Pattern to Us of Purification.
  15. 15. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — In What Sense the Wisdom of God Came to Us.
  16. 16. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — The Word Was Made Flesh.
  17. 17. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — How the Wisdom of God Healed Man.
  18. 18. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — Faith is Buttressed by the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, and is Stimulated by His Coming to Judgment.
  19. 19. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — Christ Purges His Church by Medicinal Afflictions.
  20. 20. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — Christ, by Forgiving Our Sins, Opened the Way to Our Home.
  21. 21. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — The Keys Given to the Church.
  22. 22. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — Bodily and Spiritual Death and Resurrection.
  23. 23. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — The Resurrection to Damnation.
  24. 24. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — Neither Body Nor Soul Extinguished at Death.
  25. 25. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — God Alone to Be Enjoyed.
  26. 26. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — Man Needs No Injunction to Love Himself and His Own Body.
  27. 27. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — No Man Hates His Own Flesh, Not Even Those Who Abuse It.
  28. 28. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — A Man May Love Something More Than His Body, But Does Not Therefore Hate His Body.
  29. 29. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — The Command to Love God and Our Neighbor Includes a Command to Love Ourselves.
  30. 30. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — The Order of Love.
  31. 31. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — How We are to Decide Whom to Aid.
  32. 32. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — We are to Desire and Endeavor that All Men May Love God.
  33. 33. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — Whether Angels are to Be Reckoned Our Neighbors.
  34. 34. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — God Uses Rather Than Enjoys Us.
  35. 35. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — In What Way God Uses Man.
  36. 36. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — In What Way Man Should Be Enjoyed.
  37. 37. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — Christ the First Way to God.
  38. 38. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — The Fulfillment and End of Scripture is the Love of God and Our Neighbor.
  39. 39. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — That Interpretation of Scripture Which Builds Us Up in Love is Not Perniciously Deceptive Nor Mendacious, Even Though It Be Faulty.  The Interpreter, However, Should Be Corrected.
  40. 40. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — Dangers of Mistaken Interpretation.
  41. 41. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — Love Never Faileth.
  42. 42. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — He Who is Mature in Faith, Hope and Love, Needs Scripture No Longer.
  43. 43. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture — What Manner of Reader Scripture Demands.
  44. 44. Book II — Signs, Their Nature and Variety.
  45. 45. Book II — Of the Kind of Signs We are Now Concerned with.
  46. 46. Book II — Among Signs, Words Hold the Chief Place.
  47. 47. Book II — Origin of Writing.
  48. 48. Book II — Scripture Translated into Various Languages.
  49. 49. Book II — Use of the Obscurities in Scripture Which Arise from Its Figurative Language.
  50. 50. Book II — Steps to Wisdom:  First, Fear; Second, Piety; Third, Knowledge; Fourth, Resolution; Fifth, Counsel; Sixth, Purification of Heart; Seventh, Stop or Termination, Wisdom.
  51. 51. Book II — The Canonical Books.
  52. 52. Book II — How We Should Proceed in Studying Scripture.
  53. 53. Book II — Unknown or Ambiguous Signs Prevent Scripture from Being Understood.
  54. 54. Book II — Knowledge of Languages, Especially of Greek and Hebrew, Necessary to Remove Ignorance or Signs.
  55. 55. Book II — A Diversity of Interpretations is Useful.  Errors Arising from Ambiguous Words.
  56. 56. Book II — How Faulty Interpretations Can Be Emended.
  57. 57. Book II — How the Meaning of Unknown Words and Idioms is to Be Discovered.
  58. 58. Book II — Among Versions a Preference is Given to the Septuagint and the Itala.
  59. 59. Book II — The Knowledge Both of Language and Things is Helpful for the Understanding of Figurative Expressions.
  60. 60. Book II — Origin of the Legend of the Nine Muses.
  61. 61. Book II — No Help is to Be Despised, Even Though It Come from a Profane Source.
  62. 62. Book II — Two Kinds Of Heathen Knowledge.
  63. 63. Book II — The Superstitious Nature of Human Institutions.
  64. 64. Book II — Superstition of Astrologers.
  65. 65. Book II — The Folly of Observing the Stars in Order to Predict the Events of a Life.
  66. 66. Book II — Why We Repudiate Arts of Divination.
  67. 67. Book II — The Intercourse and Agreement with Demons Which Superstitious Observances Maintain.
  68. 68. Book II — In Human Institutions Which are Not Superstitious, There are Some Things Superfluous and Some Convenient and Necessary.
  69. 69. Book II — What Human Contrivances We are to Adopt, and What We are to Avoid.
  70. 70. Book II — Some Departments of Knowledge, Not of Mere Human Invention, Aid Us in Interpreting Scripture.
  71. 71. Book II — To What Extent History is an Aid.
  72. 72. Book II — To What Extent Natural Science is an Exegetical Aid.
  73. 73. Book II — What the Mechanical Arts Contribute to Exegetics.
  74. 74. Book II — Use of Dialectics.  Of Fallacies.
  75. 75. Book II — Valid Logical Sequence is Not Devised But Only Observed by Man.
  76. 76. Book II — False Inferences May Be Drawn from Valid Reasonings, and Vice Versa.
  77. 77. Book II — It is One Thing to Know the Laws of Inference, Another to Know the Truth of Opinions.
  78. 78. Book II — The Science of Definition is Not False, Though It May Be Applied to Falsities.
  79. 79. Book II — The Rules of Eloquence are True, Though Sometimes Used to Persuade Men of What is False.
  80. 80. Book II — Use of Rhetoric and Dialectic.
  81. 81. Book II — The Science of Numbers Not Created, But Only Discovered, by Man.
  82. 82. Book II — To Which of the Above-Mentioned Studies Attention Should Be Given, and in What Spirit.
  83. 83. Book II — Whatever Has Been Rightly Said by the Heathen, We Must Appropriate to Our Uses.
  84. 84. Book II — What Kind of Spirit is Required for the Study of Holy Scripture.
  85. 85. Book II — Sacred Scripture Compared with Profane Authors.
  86. 86. Book III — Summary of the Foregoing Books, and Scope of that Which Follows.
  87. 87. Book III — Rule for Removing Ambiguity by Attending to Punctuation.
  88. 88. Book III — How Pronunciation Serves to Remove Ambiguity.  Different Kinds of Interrogation.
  89. 89. Book III — How Ambiguities May Be Solved.
  90. 90. Book III — It is a Wretched Slavery Which Takes the Figurative Expressions of Scripture in a Literal Sense.
  91. 91. Book III — Utility of the Bondage of the Jews.
  92. 92. Book III — The Useless Bondage of the Gentiles.
  93. 93. Book III — The Jews Liberated from Their Bondage in One Way, the Gentiles in Another.
  94. 94. Book III — Who is in Bondage to Signs, and Who Not.
  95. 95. Book III — How We are to Discern Whether a Phrase is Figurative.
  96. 96. Book III — Rule for Interpreting Phrases Which Seem to Ascribe Severity to God and the Saints.
  97. 97. Book III — Rule for Interpreting Those Sayings and Actions Which are Ascribed to God and the Saints, and Which Yet Seem to the Unskillful to Be Wicked.
  98. 98. Book III — Same Subject, Continued.
  99. 99. Book III — Error of Those Who Think that There is No Absolute Right and Wrong.
  100. 100. Book III — Rule for Interpreting Figurative Expressions.
  101. 101. Book III — Rule for Interpreting Commands and Prohibitions.
  102. 102. Book III — Some Commands are Given to All in Common, Others to Particular Classes.
  103. 103. Book III — We Must Take into Consideration the Time at Which Anything Was Enjoyed or Allowed.
  104. 104. Book III — Wicked Men Judge Others by Themselves.
  105. 105. Book III — Consistency of Good Men in All Outward Circumstances.
  106. 106. Book III — David Not Lustful, Though He Fell into Adultery.
  107. 107. Book III — Rule Regarding Passages of Scripture in Which Approval is Expressed of Actions Which are Now Condemned by Good Men.
  108. 108. Book III — Rule Regarding the Narrative of Sins of Great Men.
  109. 109. Book III — The Character of the Expressions Used is Above All to Have Weight.
  110. 110. Book III — The Same Word Does Not Always Signify the Same Thing.
  111. 111. Book III — Obscure Passages are to Be Interpreted by Those Which are Clearer.
  112. 112. Book III — One Passage Susceptible of Various Interpretations.
  113. 113. Book III — It is Safer to Explain a Doubtful Passage by Other Passages of Scripture Than by Reason.
  114. 114. Book III — The Knowledge of Tropes is Necessary.
  115. 115. Book III — The Rules of Tichonius the Donatist Examined.
  116. 116. Book III — The First Rule of Tichonius.
  117. 117. Book III — The Second Rule of Tichonius.
  118. 118. Book III — The Third Rule of Tichonius.
  119. 119. Book III — The Fourth Rule of Tichonius.
  120. 120. Book III — The Fifth Rule of Tichonius.
  121. 121. Book III — The Sixth Rule of Tichonius.
  122. 122. Book III — The Seventh Rule of Tichonius.
  123. 123. Book IV — This Work Not Intended as a Treatise on Rhetoric.
  124. 124. Book IV — It is Lawful for a Christian Teacher to Use the Art of Rhetoric.
  125. 125. Book IV — The Proper Age and the Proper Means for Acquiring Rhetorical Skill.
  126. 126. Book IV — The Duty of the Christian Teacher.
  127. 127. Book IV — Wisdom of More Importance Than Eloquence to the Christian Teacher.
  128. 128. Book IV — The Sacred Writers Unite Eloquence with Wisdom.
  129. 129. Book IV — Examples of True Eloquence Drawn from the Epistles of Paul and the Prophecies of Amos.
  130. 130. Book IV — The Obscurity of the Sacred Writers, Though Compatible with Eloquence, Not to Be Imitated by Christian Teachers.
  131. 131. Book IV — How, and with Whom, Difficult Passages are to Be Discussed.
  132. 132. Book IV — The Necessity for Perspicuity of Style.
  133. 133. Book IV — The Christian Teacher Must Speak Clearly, But Not Inelegantly.
  134. 134. Book IV — The Aim of the Orator, According to Cicero, is to Teach, to Delight, and to Move.  Of These, Teaching is the Most Essential.
  135. 135. Book IV — The Hearer Must Be Moved as Well as Instructed.
  136. 136. Book IV — Beauty of Diction to Be in Keeping with the Matter.
  137. 137. Book IV — The Christian Teacher Should Pray Before Preaching.
  138. 138. Book IV — Human Directions Not to Be Despised, Though God Makes the True Teacher.
  139. 139. Book IV — Threefold Division of The Various Styles of Speech.
  140. 140. Book IV — The Christian Orator is Constantly Dealing with Great Matters.
  141. 141. Book IV — The Christian Teacher Must Use Different Styles on Different Occasions.
  142. 142. Book IV — Examples of the Various Styles Drawn from Scripture.
  143. 143. Book IV — Examples of the Various Styles, Drawn from the Teachers of the Church, Especially Ambrose and Cyprian.
  144. 144. Book IV — The Necessity of Variety in Style.
  145. 145. Book IV — How the Various Styles Should Be Mingled.
  146. 146. Book IV — The Effects Produced by the Majestic Style.
  147. 147. Book IV — How the Temperate Style is to Be Used.
  148. 148. Book IV — In Every Style the Orator Should Aim at Perspicuity, Beauty, and Persuasiveness.
  149. 149. Book IV — The Man Whose Life is in Harmony with His Teaching Will Teach with Greater Effect.
  150. 150. Book IV — Truth is More Important Than Expression.  What is Meant by Strife About Words.
  151. 151. Book IV — It is Permissible for a Preacher to Deliver to the People What Has Been Written by a More Eloquent Man Than Himself.
  152. 152. Book IV — The Preacher Should Commence His Discourse with Prayer to God.
  153. 153. Book IV — Apology for the Length of the Work.

Source: CCEL