When you read the quotations below from St. Augustine please wat ch for these themes. While he did believe in immediate creation he also was quick to warn that subsequent new information could cause us to rethink Genesis and that we should be open to this so that we can change our position to accomodate scripture and not the other way around.
- Augustine stresses that his interpretation of Genesis 1-3 is literal and not metaphorical or allegorical
Augustine had tried his hand earlier at interpretation of Genesis (A Commentary on Genesis: Two Books against the Manichees) and adopted a more allegorical method. He later came to reject that method and in this more mature work, written in his late fifties just before The City of God, he is concerned “to discuss Sacred Scriptures according to the plain meaning of the historical facts, not according to future events which they foreshadow” (p. 39). Given his strong commitment to literal interpretation, it is fascinating to recognize that the outcome bears absolutely no resemblance to modern literal interpretations. For example, he concludes that in Genesis I the terms “light,” “day,” and “morning” bear a spiritual, rather than physical, meaning. Yet for Augustine, spiritual light is just as literal as physical light, and the creation of spiritual light is just as much a historical event or fact as the creation of physical light. What is literal for one person may not be literal for others.
- Augustine claims that the interpretation of Genesis I is not at all obvious and is fraught with difficulties.
Commitment to a literal interpretation does not solve all problems, nor does it lock the exegete into only one reading of the text. Perhaps more than any other interpreter, Augustine was painfully aware of the difficulties of the text. On point after point he lays out the various possibilities and often does not know how to commit himself. He freely acknowledges the many problems and options. He says that he has
worked out and presented the statements of the book of Genesis in a variety of ways according to my ability; and, in interpreting words that have been written obscurely for the purpose of stimulating our thought, I have not rashly taken my stand on one side against a rival interpretation which might possibly be better. I have thought that each one, in keeping with his powers of understanding, should choose the interpretation that he can grasp. Where he cannot understand Holy Scripture, let him glorify " and fear for himself. (pp. 43-44, emphasis mine)
He further observes that “It is a laborious and difficult task for the powers of our human understanding to see clearly the meaning of the sacred writer in the matter of these six days” (p. 103). How different is his attitude than those who, disregarding the labors of many of the church’s greatest minds over the past two millennia, have convinced themselves that the fundamental interpretation of Genesis 1-3 is perfectly obvious. If we follow Augustine’s lead, we will be very careful before using the words “the clear teaching of Scripture” in connection with these chapters.
- .Augustine claims that we ought to be willing to change our minds about the interpretation of Genesis 1-3,
particularly as new information comes to light.
Consistent with the claim that Genesis 1-3 is difficult and obscure, Augustine repeatedly urges restraint, flexibility, openness to new interpretations, and openness to new knowledge that may provide insight into the text. He says that “in matters that are obscure and far beyond our vision … we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search of truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it. That would be to battle not for the teaching of Holy Scripture but for our own, wishing its teaching to conform to ours, whereas we ought to wish ours to conform to that of Sacred Scripture” (p. 41).
