I include this book in a selection of books I call "Conversation with Christ." This is a powerful older book that has influenced Christian thinking for centuries, giving us some of the roots of thoughts practices that are still widely used today. Augustine of Hippo of course is one of the greatest of Church Fathers and should be heard on any topic he chooses to discuss. This book, however is sadly ignored in our homiletics and hermeneutics classes to our own detriment. We are an arrogant, short-sighted people sometimes.

This book has taken me far too long to read. It deserves its place among the classics both because it is great and because it is challenging. It is not about Christian Doctrine in spite of what the title says. It is about the discernment and communication of Christian Doctrine. Augustine, orator that he was, goes about the task teaching how the Bible's truth should be discerned, framed and communicated. In the first three books he talks about discernment and framing. That is, he tells how the Bible should be interpreted and understood. In this way, he is more a technician and craftsman than a theologian. It is important for the presenter of the Gospel to know how to read the Bible for what it says first and also for the harmonics in its meanings. In Augustine's day allegorical interpretations were quite common. He pulls back from that habit and says that ordinary meanings of passages should be pursued first. It is only in the case where ordinary meanings are quite obscure in their theological importance that alegorical meanings should be pursued. More importantly, he highlights how love, faith and the glory of God should guide our thinking as we study and prepare to deliver the word. He says, in the time of our hope, when our love is perfected, Scripture will no longer be necessary.

Augustine's method is one of essential exegesis. It seems odd to say since he himself employed allegory so much, but he strongly encourages a methodology that is not dependent on that device. He encourages language and contextual studies, to the point of determining a critical text. This is no small thing, since he admits here that he did not know Hebrew and in the Confessions that he found Greek burdensome. For Augustine, critical text was as much about comparing versions as exploring the original languages. These tools are more abundant to us in the English speaking world today than ever. Woe to us if we do not use them to good advantage. In the presence of such wealth we should be experiencing an unprecedented renaissance in the understanding of Scripture. I believe it should also bring about a powerful unity in that understanding, bringing us closer to the purity of what was in God's mind when He inspired it.

The last book is a treatise on oratory and the appropriate use of that art for the communication of the Gospel. Augustine was a most accomplished orator and advises two considerations for the training of preachers. One is that if a person has a natural capacity of oration, he need not spend much time in training, however if he does not no amount of training will repair the lack. The second is that a natural aptitude is best trained in listening to skilled orators more than in studying the structure of effecitve oratory. Finally, he goes about explaining three modes of oratory: the subdued (used to inform), the temperate (used to delight), and the majestic (used to persuade). The strict division of these methods should not be observed, because each of them can be used for each of the three purposes when appropriate. Augustine advises a sparing use of the majestic, most forceful, tone since emotionally the audience cannot maintain that pitch for long. Augustine advises that all considerations must combine eloquence and wisdom, with an awareness that the word the preacher speaks is of the utmost importance.

“There is a danger of forgetting what one has to say while working out a clever way to say it.”, p. 103

Incredibly meaningful and relevant, particular for Christian educators. His famous discourse on joy vs. use remains timelessly crucial in our western context obsessed with 'practical' application or usability.

I'm not much for Augustine's Confessions, which I've started and given up twice over the years for being too grovelling and self-pitying. Augustine is a gifted explicator, however, and his prose is a joy to read; On Christian Doctrine deserves its place at the headwaters of post-antiquity western tradition.

Contrary to my assumptions, this book is neither an introduction to nor a systematic explanation of Christian theology. Rather, it's an original and well-developed guide to reading well. Using what Augustine refers to as the "divine books"* for his examples, Augustine presents the essential principles of literacy - including recognition of metaphors and rhetorical styles, figurative and literal language, interpretive layers, accounting for context, the methods, use, and limits of inferring authorial intent, and even comparing translations to develop a more robust understanding of foreign-language texts. Observations and insights on Christian theology, scripture, and philosophy are liberally sprinkled throughout, naturally, but they're there to illustrate how to read complicated literature. Succinct, brilliant, indispensable. I wish I'd read this in grade school.

*Since the canon of Christian scripture was not yet determined as of his lifetime, I'm not totally sure which books of the present-day New Testaments Augustine had access to or considered "divine." The list could be inferred from included references, and I'm sure this has been done and is available online somewhere. I take it as given that he would have included the Jewish Septuagint.

Excellent!
The bandage must fit the wound. Because the fall happened by the deception speech of the serpent, so our salvation happens by the foolishness of preaching. Through words were were damned, through words we are saved. Thus Augustine explores the vast oceans of speech and all that is them is. There are some dull parts (grammar and punctuation), but that happens when classical mind moves from the great leviathans of this ocean to a detailed biopsy of the troglodytes at this oceans bottom. But as a whole it is marvelous.
Point of interest. In book one is Anselm's ontological argument. All the greatest writers are Plagiarists. Ad fontes eh.

The words in his title have gotten an offputting reputation in other contexts, and that's a shame. Doctrine is guidance in love. Augustine himself, probably from somebody's frightening childhood experience with City of God, would tend to offer an intimidating nameplate.

Try anyway. He is a master of the trenchant turn of phrase who would have been right at home on social media. Only after we've liked and shared do we realize the extent to which he is conveying timeless reverence toward Christ and His Word. Plus, it's about 100 pages, so you get all the cachet of reading Augustine in a tiny fraction of the time it takes to lug around City of God to its completion.

Watch out, though. The approachability of his prose in the heat of his love for Christ which is immediately apparent therein might embolden you to the point that you wouldn't mind hanging out with him longer.

While at times difficult to read, On Christian Doctrine is an extremely rewarding book that helps Christians learn how to read and interpret Scripture, as well as teach Christian doctrine to different audiences. This text served as a manual for preachers for over a millennium after it was written, and would still be helpful for contemporary preachers and teachers.

St. Augustine, St. Paul, St. Ambrose, St. Cyprian, pray for us!

Some of his claims concerning the nature of "signs" and "things" can be shaky, but otherwise a lot of the things he said could be applied in the modern context. And very, very insightful. I could see why later philosophers would go back to his ideas. I'd definitely read the entire thing if I grab hold of a copy.

The part about the Trinity, in the beginning, was fascinating. But eventually it just became a manual for how to read the Bible. Granted, the method of interpreting a Biblical passage by reading through multiple translations, as well as going to the original, is pleasing to read. But I was expecting a little more theology.

I feel presumptuous giving Augustine 3 stars. If you were to compare my intellect with Augustine's, mine would definitely be the one wanting. However, there were some thoughts I found troublesome.

Augustine's book aims to contain a “general view of the subjects treated in the Holy Scripture”. It is secondarily concerned with proper hermeneutics in order to ascertain what those subjects are. Of his secondary aim, there is a lot of sense in what he writes. Is a passage literal? Do not interpret it figuratively. Is it figurative? Do not interpret it literally. And so on. It is the “general view” of the subjects found in scripture that bothered me. Here, I cannot help but think that he breaks with his own advice found in the “Dangers of Mistaken Interpretation” section. Here he says, ”For if he takes up rashly a meaning which the author whom he is reading did not intend, he often falls in with other statements which he cannot harmonize with this meaning, And if he admits that these statements are true and certain then it follows that the meaning he had put upon the former passage cannot be the true one: and so it comes to pass, one can hardly tell how, that, out of love for his own opinion, he begins to feel more angry with Scripture than he is with himself.” Although Augustine does not become angry, I think he does force some ideas in order to fit them in with his original interpretations.

For example, he expounds the idea that things here are either to be enjoyed, to be used, or are to be both used an enjoyed. He defines enjoyment as something we find satisfaction in for it's own sake and urges us to consider that God is the only true source of enjoyment. Things for use are those things that we employ to obtain what we desire (which is hopefully God). But then he tried to to put humans under the category of “things” and maintained that God only uses us (though of course with a different definition of use, with it being for our own good). This is something I agree with to some extent. What bothered me is that he expressly says that God does not enjoy us. He says, ”If He enjoys us, He must be in need of good from us, and no sane man will say that; for all the good we enjoy is either Himself, or what comes from Himself.”. Does it follow that in order to enjoy us it must be because he needs some good from us? Can we not say that He enjoys us since we do fall under the category of those things which come from Himself?

Another bothersome thing he says is this: And thus a man who is resting upon faith, hope and love, and who keeps a firm hold upon these, does not need the Scriptures except for the purpose of instructing others. Accordingly, many live without copies of the Scriptures even in solitude on the strength of these three graces.” If he had said 'on the strength of Scriptures they had memorized” or something then maybe I could get behind his statement. But to put so much trust in the individual to be able to keep a firm hold on these things without the corrective aid of Scripture, well, it kind of blows my mind. And what Scripture does he base this statement on?

So, I concede that I may be misreading this work, and I also think there are practical things, useful things if you will, to be found here, but until I can reconcile other problems I give it 3 stars.

While I would have never picked this book up on my own accord I found that I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. The book was assigned for my class on Dante to help us understand some of the literature that Dante would have read and to give us an idea of the type of literary criticism that Dante would expect. And it is true that our class needed to read this to see where Dante was coming from. The book is definitely dated in Christian ideas, but it does show a good foundation of what modern Christianity is. As always religion changes more than people want to admit and Christianity is no exception, so it was definitely interesting to read some of the older thoughts on the Religion.