Augustine's most empowering discussions in On Christian Doctrine are about signs. Signs, he establishes, are things that require interpretation. This can be done through education and proper translation. It is to be done yielding further enjoyment for God, which is the only thing one should truly enjoy. This includes worldly concepts, like science. If they make sense, they can be attributed to God and thoroughly endorsed. According to Augustine, all joy stems from the benefits and worship of God. Once it is understood how to properly worship (that one has a good grasp on scripture) then it can be done independent of the physical literature.
It seems that this, while being an entire book of rules, is a very permitting view of religious interpretation and Christianity. He warns against hasty face-value understanding of scripture, which many could claim is a serious problem even in modern times. Billings' article seemed to be a response to people taking the Bible too literally without any translational backing, only ancient and obsolete rationalization. Augustine also allows for historical context to describe the emotions of the past readers and as means for further application of the scripture now. The slower, more intimate connection he suggests one have with the Bible is much more constructive than the black and white description of "How to Read the Bible." St. Augustine wants people to develop a spiritual connection to God and truly enjoy what they are reading as a result of confidence in the legitimacy of their beliefs. While nothing is said in reference to tolerance of other religions, this is a view much more tolerant of different sects within Christianity. Reading and later understanding without reading scripture is about loving one's self and God, which a refreshingly humanistic concept amongst much extremist religious literature.
Indeed! It's odd that he is so open to allowing people to interpret on their own, when he clearly values the Bible extremely highly, and is quite certain of absolute truths.
ReplyDeleteI think there's another side though - while he is very open to other interpretations that can be rationally defended, he is strongly opposed to those he believes can be rationally undermined. He lists several heresies that he in no way tries to "tolerate", since he believes the are wrong and believes he knows where they made their error in reasoning.
The openess I believe this blog post mentions when determining symbols is attributed to the idea the humans are always functionally interpreting symbols. I think Augustine understands that. However I do think he wants people to set within themselves a higher standard of interpretation, like the bible, in order that they may gain more wisdom. This toleration is out of knowledge that some do and some do not temporally have the ability to interpret them correctly.
ReplyDeleteI found Augustine's open mindedness very refreshing as well! His positive outlook made me more enthused about looking at the bible as something that is far less harsh than I originally thought. I was also super surprised by how far ahead of his time Augustine was! I was shocked about how his ideas could fit in so easily with our own today!
ReplyDeleteNice post! I definitely agree with all the things you said. It was amazing how open Augustine was with all he was saying. He really seemed way ahead of his time to not be so tolerant of different understandings of the bible.
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