A fascinating little book for all kinds of people: late antiquity buffs; philosophers; hermeneuts; and of course, Christians. Augie usually manages to find his way to a reasonable middle position: against biblical literalism, also against waiting for a direct experience of God.

Book one describes 'things' rather than signs, and we get some of Augie's less up to date opinions: you shouldn't love people for themselves, but for the sake of God, and the same thing goes for one's self. But these are backed by more liberal-friendly ideas. The neighbor who we are to love, for instance, is pretty much everyone.

We then move on to 'signs, ambiguities and difficulties of,' which is full of fairly sensible advice for anyone who wants to read anything. There are some things you have to know in order to interpret words: languages, for instance, institutions, general facts, logic, rhetoric. But we shouldn't take too much pleasure in these. It sometimes seems, unfortunately, that Augie really thinks you should only know things that are boring and will help you conform to society. I suspect that this claim needs to be put in some kind of historical context--in a solidly Christian culture, presumably, we would be more free to enjoy "human-made institutions," since, he goes on to say, there is much of value to be found even in pagan literature.

Having dealt with the difficulties, we move on to the division between literal and figurative understanding of signs. If sections of scripture are not related to moral behavior or to faith, they should be interpreted figuratively (which, though he doesn't say it, means pretty much all of it should be interpreted figuratively). He goes on to discuss morality at some length, making a nice distinction between the corruption of one's own mind and body (wickedness) and harm to another (wrongdoing). Augie, and almost every religious thinker after him, focuses too much on wickedness, and nowhere near enough on wrongdoing.

Interestingly, book three was started in the 390s, but abandoned, and only finished in the 420s; much of the later work is less interesting, though classicists might appreciate his description of Tyconius, who wrote his own system of interpretation.

Book four, also late, is a defense of the rhetorical beauty of the bible. Not riveting. Not at all.

But on the whole, a fascinating, quickish read.

There is no point in rating this book because you will read it because it was assigned or because you have some interest in Augustine. Another dilemma is how does one rate a classic in Christian history and philosophy? Five stars for being old and persevered?

In any case, I gave it four stars because it was kinda fun to read. Almost everything in your contemporary hermeneutics or preaching classes is in this book in some form. Even if Augustine draws false results from these principles the principles are much the same. There are some principles that he speaks of that were important for the time he was writing (i.e. Allegory, Rhetoric), which we don't really appreciate or care much about, but should be understood if you deal with early church founders. One warning would be that his arguments are very precise and this can get old quick.

Books I-III: learning how to interpret the Bible; when is it literary and when is it figurative?; "rule of faith"; semiotics

Book IV: rhetoric (presenting what you've learned)

Good thoughts on hermeneutics, semiotics, and plundering the Egyptians. The last ten pages or so are just great.

This was just fantastic. Augustine's work here clearly shaped and guided Christian thought and doctrine, and the effects of his wisdom are felt today. He navigates the heresies common to his day and leads the reader to understand what the Bible teaches. He offers timeless principles which should form and shape Christians, both the lay person and the leaders.

Two sections in particular I found most delightful and spiritually edifying. The first is in book 1, where he pursues how objects are to be enjoyed and used for the purpose of ultimately enjoying God. That when we enjoy things as ends themselves, we veer off into idolatry and will be left dissatisfied. It is here that Augustine stands forth as a most ardent defender of the church against all forms of gnosticism and asceticism.

The second section I found truly wonderful was when he treats with wisdom and eloquence. There are eloquent men who are devoid of wisdom and such men fall into two categories. Those who have the all substance of a hot air balloon; the other being malevolent in their eloquence, seeking to deceive their hearers through their silver speech. Augustine then speaks of men who are Wise but not eloquent, and while this is not ideal, it is better to be wise with God's wisdom and devoid of eloquence, than have eloquence and no wisdom. But best of all is a man who is made wise by God's Word & Spirit and who has the gift of eloquence. Nevertheless, eloquence must submit to wisdom, not vice versa!

I highly commend this work to students of Christian doctrine and Biblical truth!