Saint Augustine and the Bible

[Pluggedin]

Hello,

Will you please direct me to more information in regards to the following beliefs about the bible held by St. Augustine and if the church follows these beliefs - thanks?

St. Augustine (353-430 A.D.), the most influential of the early Christian theologians, knew that there were all sorts of problems if the Bible was taken literally. St. Augustine’s position, adopted by the Church, is that one accepts a literal reading, unless and until reason or empirical science shows otherwise. Then one changes. The Bible–the Old Testament particularly–was written for primitive nomadic folk, not sophisticated modern thinkers, so much is expected to be metaphorical or allegorical.

 

[Randy_Carson]

Hello,

Will you please direct me to more information in regards to the following beliefs about the bible held by St. Augustine and if the church follows these beliefs - thanks?

St. Augustine (353-430 A.D.), the most influential of the early Christian theologians, knew that there were all sorts of problems if the Bible was taken literally. St. Augustine’s position, adopted by the Church, is that one accepts a literal reading, unless and until reason or empirical science shows otherwise. Then one changes. The Bible–the Old Testament particularly–was written for primitive nomadic folk, not sophisticated modern thinkers, so much is expected to be metaphorical or allegorical.

The correct approach is a literal - not literalist - approach that seeks to understand what the author was trying to convey.

If I say, “It is raining cats and dogs outside”,

the literal approach says that it is raining very heavily
the literalist approach says that cats and dogs are falling from the sky.

If I say, “There were a million people at mass on Easter”,

the literal approach says that it was very crowded at mass
the literalist approach says that one million people were at mass on Easter.

Hope this helps. :tiphat:

 

[1ke]

Where did this quote come from?

It is overly simplistic and not entirely accurate regarding St. Augustine or the Church.

The Catechism paragraphs 50 - 141 are the sections relevant to this, especially starting at 101. And, other church documents such as Dei Verbum would be another good source.