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GraciousCall.org - Footnotes of Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love
[1]
I Cor. 1:20.
[2]
Wis. 6:26 (Vulgate).
[3]
Rom. 16:19.
[4]
A later interpolation, not found in the best MSS., adds,
"As no one can exist from himself, so also no one can be wise in himself save
only as he is enlightened by Him of whom it is written, 'All wisdom is from
God' [Ecclus. 1:1]."
[5]
Job 28:28.
6
A transliteration of the Greek
[[epsilon]][[gamma]][[chi]][[epsilon]][[iota]][[rho]][[iota]]d[[iota]][[omicron][[nu]],
literally, a handbook or manual.
[7]
Cf. Gal. 5:6.
[8]
Cf. I Cor. 13:10, 11.
[9]
I Cor. 3:11.
[10]
Already, very early in his ministry (397), Augustine had
written
De agone Christiano
, in which he had reviewed and refuted a full
score of heresies threatening the orthodox faith.
[11]
The Apostles' Creed. Cf. Augustine's early essay
On
Faith and the Creed
.
[12]
Joel 2:32.
[13]
Rom. 10:14.
[14]
Lucan,
Pharsalia
, II, 15.
[15]
Virgil,
Aeneid
, IV, 419. The context of this
quotation is Dido's lament over Aeneas' prospective abandonment of her. She is
saying that if she could have foreseen such a disaster, she would have been
able to bear it. Augustine's criticism here is a literalistic quibble.
[16]
Heb. 11:1.
[17]
Sacra eloquia
--a favorite phrase of Augustine's
for the Bible.
[18]
Rom. 8:24, 25 (Old Latin).
[19]
James 2:19.
[20]
One of the standard titles of early Greek philosophical
treatises was [[pi]][[epsilon]][[rho]][[iota]]
[[phi]][[nu]][[sigma]][[epsilon]][[omega]][[zeta]], which would translate into
Latin as
De rerum natura
. This is, in fact, the title of Lucretius'
famous poem, the greatest philosophical work written in classical Latin.
[21]
This basic motif appears everywhere in Augustine's
thought as the very foundation of his whole system.
[22]
This section (Chs. III and IV) is the most explicit
statement of a major motif which pervades the whole of Augustinian metaphysics.
We see it in his earliest writings,
Soliloquies
, 1, 2, and
De
ordine
, II, 7. It is obviously a part of the Neoplatonic heritage which
Augustine appropriated for his Christian philosophy. The good is positive,
constructive, essential; evil is privative, destructive, parasitic on the good.
It has its origin, not in nature, but in the will. Cf.
Confessions
, Bk.
VII, Chs. III, V, XII-XVI;
On Continence
, 14-16;
On the Gospel of
John
, Tractate XCVIII, 7;
City of God
, XI, 17; XII, 7-9.
[23]
Isa. 5:20.
[24]
Matt. 12:35.
[25]
This refers to Aristotle's well-known principle of "the
excluded middle."
[26]
Matt. 7:18.
[27]
Cf. Matt. 12:33.
[28]
Virgil,
Georgios
, II, 490.
[29]
Ibid
., 479.
[30]
Sed in via pedum, non in via morum.
[31]
Virgil,
Eclogue
, VIII, 42. The context of the
passage is Damon's complaint over his faithless Nyssa; he is here remembering
the first time he ever saw her--when he was twelve! Cf.
Theocritus
, II,
82.
[32]
Cf. Matt. 5:37.
[33]
Cf. Confessions, Bk. X, Ch. XXIII.
[34]
Ad consentium contra mendacium
,
CSEL
(J.
Zycha, ed.), Vol. 41, pp. 469-
528;
also Migne,
PL
, 40, c. 517-548; English translation by H.B. Jaffee in
Deferrari,
St. Augustine: Treatises on Various Subjects
(The Fathers of
the Church, New York, 1952), pp. 113-179. This had been written about a year
earlier than the
Enchiridion
. Augustine had also written another
treatise
On Lying
much earlier, c. 395; see
De mendacio
in
CSEL
(J. Zycha, ed.), Vol. 41, pp. 413-466; Migne,
PL
, 40, c.
487-518; English translation by M.S. Muldowney in Deferrari,
op. cit
.,
pp. 47-109. This summary of his position here represents no change of view
whatever on this question.
[35]
Sallust,
The War with Catiline
, X, 6-7.
[36]
Cf. Acts 12:9.
[37]
Virgil,
Aeneid
, X, 392.
[38]
This refers to one of the first of the Cassiciacum
dialogues,
Contra
Academicos
. The gist of Augustine's refutation
of skepticism is in III, 23ff. Throughout his whole career he continued to
maintain this position: that certain knowledge begins with self-knowledge. Cf.
Confessions
, Bk. V, Ch. X, 19; see also
City of God
, XI, xxvii.
[39]
Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17.
[40]
A direct contrast between
suspensus assenso
--the
watchword of the Academics--and
assensio
, the badge of Christian
certitude.
[41]
See above, VII, 90.
[42]
Matt. 5:37.
[43]
Matt. 6:12.
[44]
Rom. 5:12.
[45]
Cf. Luke 20:36.
[46]
Rom. 4:17.
[47]
Wis. 11:20.
[48]
II Peter 2:19.
[49]
John 8:36.
[50]
Eph. 2:8.
[51]
I Cor. 7:25.
[52]
Eph. 2:8, 9.
[53]
Eph. 2:10.
[54]
Cf. Gal. 6:15; II Cor. 5:17.
[55]
Ps. 51:10.
[56]
Phil. 2:13.
[57]
Rom. 9:16.
[58]
Prov. 8:35 (LXX).
[59]
From the days at Cassiciacum till the very end,
Augustine toiled with the mystery of the primacy of God's grace and the reality
of human freedom. Of two things he was unwaveringly sure, even though they
involved him in a paradox and the appearance of confusion. The first is that
God's grace is not only primary but also sufficient as the ground and source of
human willing. And against the Pelagians and other detractors from grace, he
did not hesitate to insist that grace is irresistible and inviolable. Cf.
On
Grace and Free Will
, 99, 41-43;
On the Predestination of the Saints
,
19:10;
On the Gift of Perseverance
, 41;
On the Soul and Its
Origin
, 16; and even the
Enchiridion
, XXIV, 97.
But he never drew from this deterministic emphasis the conclusion that man is
unfree and everywhere roundly rejects the not illogical corollary of his
theonomism, that man's will counts for little or nothing except as passive
agent of God's will. He insists on responsibility on man's part in responding
to the initiatives of grace. For this emphasis, which is characteristically
directed to the faithful themselves, see
On the Psalms
, LXVIII, 7-8;
On the Gospel of John
, Tractate, 53:6-8; and even his severest
anti-Pelagian tracts:
On Grace and Free Will
, 6-8, 10, 31 and
On
Admonition and Grace
, 2-8.
[60]
Ps. 58:11 (Vulgate).
[61]
Ps. 23:6.
[62]
Cf. Matt. 5:44.
[63]
The theme that he had explored in
Confessions
,
Bks. I-IX. See especially Bk. V, Chs. X, XIII; Bk. VII, Ch. VIII; Bk. IX, Ch.
I.
[64]
Cf. Ps. 90:9.
[65]
Job 14:1.
[66]
John 3:36.
[67]
Eph. 2:3.
[68]
Rom. 5:9, 10.
[69]
Rom. 8:14.
[70]
John 1:14.
[71]
Rom. 3:20.
[72]
Epistle
CXXXVII, written in 412 in reply to a
list of queries sent to Augustine by the proconsul of Africa.
[73]
John 1:1.
[74]
Phil. 2:6, 7.
[75]
These metaphors for contrasting the "two natures" of
Jesus Christ were favorite figures of speech in Augustine's Christological
thought. Cf.
On the Gospel of John
, Tractate 78;
On the Trinity
,
I, 7; II, 2; IV, 19-20; VII, 3;
New Testament Sermons
, 76, 14.
[76]
Luke 1:28-30.
[77]
John 1:14.
[78]
Luke 1:35.
[79]
Matt. 1:20.
[80]
Rom. 1:3.
[81]
Rom. 8:3.
[82]
Cf. Hos. 4:8.
[83]
II Cor. 5:20, 21.
[84]
Virgil,
Aeneid
, II, 1, 20.
[85]
Num. 21:7 (LXX).
[86]
Matt. 2:20.
[87]
Ex. 32:4.
[88]
Rom. 5:12.
[89]
Deut. 5:9.
[90]
Ezek. 18:2.
[91]
Ps. 51:5.
[92]
I Tim. 2:5.
[93]
Matt. 3:13.
[94]
Luke 3:4; Isa. 40:3.
[95]
Ps. 2:7; Heb. 5:5; cf. Mark 1:9-11.
[96]
Rom. 5:16.
[97]
Rom. 5:18.
[98]
Rom. 6:1.
[99]
Rom. 5:20.
[100]
Rom. 6:2.
[101]
Rom. 6:3.
[102]
Rom. 6:4-11.
[103]
Gal. 5:24.
[104]
Col. 3:1-3.
[105]
Col. 3:4.
[106]
John 5:29.
[107]
Ps. 54:1.
[108]
Cf. Matt. 25:32, 33.
[109]
Ps. 43:1.
[110]
Reading the classical Latin form
poscebat
(as
in Scheel and PL) for the late form
poxebat
(as in Riviere and many old
MSS.).
[111]
Cf. Ps. 113:3.
[112]
Here reading
unum deum
(with Rivière and
PL) against
deum
(in Scheel).
[113]
A hyperbolic expression referring to "the saints."
Augustine's Scriptural backing for such an unusual phrase is Ps. 82:6 and John
10:34f. But note the firm distinction between
ex diis quos facit
and
non factus Deus
.
[114]
I Cor. 6:19.
[115]
I Cor. 6:15.
[116]
Col. 1:18.
[117]
John 2:19.
[118]
II Peter 2:4 (Old Latin).
[119]
Heb. 1:13.
[120]
Ps. 148:2 (LXX).
[121]
Co1. 1:16.
[122]
Zech. 1:9.
[123]
Matt. 1:20.
[124]
Gen. 18:4; 19:2.
[125]
Gen. 32:24.
[126]
Rom. 8:31, 32.
[127]
Cf. Eph. 1:10.
[128]
Col. 1:19, 20.
[129]
Cf. I Cor. 13:9, 12
[130]
Cf. Luke 20:36.
[131]
I Cor. 13:12.
[132]
Cf. Luke 15:24.
[133]
Rom. 8:14.
[134]
I John 1:8.
[135]
In
actione poenitentiae
; cf. Luther's similar
conception of
poenitentiam agite
in the
95 Theses
and in
De
poenitentia
.
[136]
Ps. 51:17.
[137]
Ps. 38:9.
[138]
II Cor. 1:22.
[139]
Ecclus. 40:1 (Vulgate).
[140]
I Cor. 11:31, 32.
141
This chapter supplies an important clue to the date of the
Enchiridion
and an interesting side light on Augustine's inclination to
re-use "good material." In his treatise on
The Eight Questions of
Dulcitius
(
De octo Dulcitii quaestionibus
), 1: 10-13, Augustine
quotes this entire chapter as a part of his answer to the question whether
those who sin after baptism are ever delivered from hell. The date of the
De
octo
is 422 or, possibly, 423; thus we have a
terminus ad quem
for
the date of the Enchiridion. Still the best text of
De octo
is Migne,
PL
, 40, c. 147-170, and the best English translation is in Deferrari,
St. Augustine: Treatises on Various Subjects
(The Fathers of the Church,
New York, 1952), pp. 427-466.
142
A short treatise, written in 413, in which Augustine seeks to
combine the Pauline and Jacobite emphases by analyzing what kind of faith and
what kind of works are
both
essential to salvation. The best text is
that of Joseph Zycha in
CSEL
, Vol. 41, pp. 35-97; but see also Migne,
PL
, 40, c. 197-230. There is an English translation by C.L. Cornish in
A Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church; Seventeen Short
Treatises
, pp. 37-84.
[143]
Gal. 5:6.
[144]
James 2:17.
[145]
James 2:14.
[146]
I Cor. 3:15.
[147]
I Cor. 6:9, 10.
[148]
I Cor. 3:11, 12.
[149]
I Cor. 3:11-15.
[150]
Ecclus. 27:5.
[151]
Cf. I Cor. 7:32, 33
[152]
See above, XVIII, 67.
[153]
Matt. 25:34, 41.
[154]
Ecclus. 15:20.
[155]
John 3:5.
[156]
Matt. 6:9-12.
[157]
Cf. Luke 11 :41.
[158]
This is a close approximation of the medieval lists of
"The Seven Works of Mercy." Cf. J.T. McNeill,
A History of the Cure of
Souls
, pp. 155, 161. (Harper & Brothers, 1951, New York.)
[159]
Matt. 5:44.
[160]
John 14:6.
[161]
Matt. 6:14, 15.
[162]
Luke 11:37-41.
[163]
Acts 15:9.
[164]
Titus 1:15.
[165]
Ecclus. 30:24 (Vulgate).
[166]
Rom. 5:16.
[167]
Rom. 5:8.
[168]
Luke 10:27.
[169]
Luke 11:42.
[170]
Matt. 23:26.
[171]
Ps. 10:6 (Vulgate).
[172]
Ps. 58:11 (Vulgate); cf. Ps. 59:10 (R.S.V.).
[173]
I Cor. 7:5 (mixed text).
[174]
I Cor. 6:1.
[175]
I Cor. 6:4-6.
[176]
I Cor. 6:7a.
[177]
I Cor. 6:7b.
[178]
Matt. 5:40.
[179]
Luke 6:30.
[180]
James 3:2 (Vulgate).
[181]
Matt. 5:22, 23.
[182]
Gal. 4:11 (Vulgate).
[183]
Ps. 10:3 (Vulgate).
[184]
Isa. 5:7 (LXX).
[185]
Gen. 18:20 (Vulgate with one change).
[186]
For example,
Contra Faust
., XXII, 78;
De
pecc. meritis et remissione
, I, xxxix, 70;
ibid
., II, xxii, 26;
Quaest. in Heptateuch
, 4:24;
De libero arbitrio
, 3:18, 55;
De
div. quaest
., 83:26;
De natura et gratia
, 67:81;
Contra duas ep.
Pelag
., I:3, 7; I:13:27.
[187]
Ps. 27:1.
[188]
II Tim. 2:25 (mixed text).
[189]
Cf. Luke 22:61.
[190]
Cf. John 20:22, 23.
[191]
This
libellus
is included in Augustine's
Sermons
(LXXI,
PL
, 38, col. 445-467), to which Possidius gave the
title
De blasphemia in Spiritum Sanctum
. English translation in
N-PNF
, 1st Series, Vol. VI, Sermon XXI, pp. 318-332.
[192]
Sicut semina quae concepta non fuerint
.
[193]
Jerome,
Epistle to Vitalis, Ep. LXXII
, 2;
PL
, 22, 674. Augustine also refers to similar phenomena in
The City
of God
, XVI. viii, 2.
[194]
Gal. 5:17.
[195]
I Cor. 15:40.
[196]
I Cor. 15:50.
[197]
I Cor. 15:44.
[198]
Rev. 2:11; 20:6, 14.
[199]
Ps. 100:1 (Vulgate); cf. Ps. 101:1 (R.S.V.).
[200]
Matt. 11:21.
[201]
This is one of the rare instances in which a textual
variant in Augustine's text affects a basic issue in the interpretation of his
doctrine. All but one of the major old editions, up to and including Migne,
here read:
Nec utique deus injuste noluit salvos fiere eum possent salvi
esse SI VELLENT
(if
they
willed it). This would mean the attribution
of a decisive role in human salvation to the human will and would thus stand
out in bold relief from his general stress in the rest of the
Enchiridion
and elsewhere on the primacy and even irresistibility of
grace. The Jansenist edition of Augustine, by Arnauld in 1648, read
SI
VELLET
(if
He
willed it) and the reading became the subject of
acrimonious controversy between the Jansenists and the Molinists. The Maurist
edition reads
si vellet
, on the strength of much additional MS. evidence
that had not been available up to that time. In modern times, the
si
vellet
reading has come to have the overwhelming support of the critical
editors, although Rivière still reads
si vellent
. Cf. Scheel,
76-77 (See Bibl.); Rivière, 402-403; J.=G. Krabinger,
S. Aurelii
Augustini Enchiridion
(Tübingen, 1861 ), p. 116; Faure-Passaglia,
S. Aurelii Augustini Enchiridion
(Naples, 1847), p. 178; and H. Hurter,
Sanctorum Patrum opuscula selecta
(Innsbruck, 1895), p. 123.
[202]
Cf. Ps. 113:11 (a mixed text; composed inexactly from
Ps. 115:3 and Ps. 135:6; an interesting instance of Augustine's sense of
liberty with the texts of Scripture. Here he is doubtless quoting from
memory).
[203]
I Tim. 2:4.
[204]
Matt. 23:37.
[205]
Rom. 9:18.
[206]
Rom. 9:11, 12.
[207]
Cf. Mal. 1:2, 3 and Rom. 9:13.
[208]
Rom. 9:14.
[209]
Rom. 9:15.
[210]
Rom. 9:15; see above, IX, 32.
[211]
Eph. 2:3.
[212]
Rom. 9:16.
[213]
I Cor. 1 :31; cf. Jer. 9:24. The
religious
intention of Augustine's emphasis upon divine sovereignty and predestination is
never so much to account for the doom of the wicked as to underscore the sheer
and wonderful gratuity of salvation.
[214]
Rom. 9:17; cf. Ex. 9:16.
[215]
Rom. 9:19.
[216]
Rom. 9:20, 21.
[217]
I Cor. 1:31.
[218]
Ps. 110:2 (Vulgate).
[219]
Matt. 16:23.
[220]
Acts 21:10-12.
[221]
I Tim. 2:4.
[222]
John 1:9.
[223]
I Tim. 2:1.
[224]
I Tim. 2:2.
[225]
I Tim. 2:3.
[226]
I Tim. 2:4.
[227]
Luke 11:42.
[228]
Ps. 135:6.
[229]
Another example of Augustine's wordplay. Man's
original capacities included both the power not to sin and the power to sin
(
posse non peccare et posse peccare
). In Adam's original sin, man lost
the
posse non peccare
(the power not to sin) and retained the
posse
peccare
(the power to sin)--which he continues to exercise. In the
fulfillment of grace, man will have the
posse peccare
taken away and
receive the highest of all, the power not to be able to sin,
non posse
peccare
. Cf.
On Correction and Grace
XXXIII.
[230]
Again, a wordplay between
posset non mori
and
non possit mori
.
[231]
Prov. 8:35 (LXX).
[232]
Rom. 6:23.
[233]
Cf. John 1:16.
[234]
Rom. 9:21.
[235]
I Tim. 2:5 (mixed text).
[236]
Rom. 14:10; II Cor. 5:10.
[237]
Cf. Ps. 77:9.
[238]
Rom. 9:23.
[239]
Matt. 25:46.
[240]
Cf. Ps. 31:19.
241
Note the artificial return to the triadic scheme of the treatise:
faith, hope, and love.
[242]
Jer. 17:5.
[243]
Matt. 6:9, 10.
[244]
Matt. 6:11-13.
[245]
Luke 11:2-4.
[246]
Matt. 7:7.
[247]
Another wordplay on
cupiditas
and
caritas
.
[248]
An interesting resemblance here to Freud's description
of the Id, the primal core of our unconscious life.
[249]
Rom. 3:20.
[250]
II Peter 2:19.
[251]
Rom. 5:20.
[252]
Compare the psychological notion of the effect of
external moral pressures and their power to arouse guilt feelings, as in
Freud's notion of "superego."
[253]
Gal. 5:17.
[254]
Wis. 11:21 (Vulgate).
[255]
Cf. John 1:17.
[256]
John 3:8.
[257]
Rom. 14:9.
[258]
Cf. Ps. 88:5.
[259]
ITim. 1:5.
[260]
Matt. 22:40.
[261]
1Tim. 1:5.
[262]
I John 4:16.
[263]
Ex. 20:14; Matt. 5:27; etc.
[264]
I Cor. 7:1.
[265]
I Cor. 4:5.
[266]
Minuitur autem cupiditas caritate crescente
.
[267]
John 15:23.
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