Quotes from Augustine’s On Christian Teaching
Quotes to chew on from Augustine’s On Christian Teaching:
So it seems to me that the following advice is beneficial for young people who are keen and intelligent, who fear God and seek a life of true happiness. Do not venture without due care into any branches of learning outside the church of Christ, as if they were a means to attaining the happy life, but discriminate sensibly and carefully between them.— Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching
But since the human race is prone to judge sins not by the strength of the actual lust, but rather by the standard of its own practices, people generally regard as culpable only such actions as men of their time and place tend to blame and condemn, and regard as commendable and praiseworthy only such actions as are acceptable within the conventions of their own society. And so it happens that if scripture enjoins something at variance with the practices of its readers, or censures something that is not at variance with them, they consider the relevant expression to be figurative (always assuming that their minds are governed by the authority of the Word). But scripture enjoins nothing but love, and censures nothing but lust, and moulds men’s minds accordingly.— Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching
oratorical ability, so effective a resource to commend either right or wrong, is available to both sides; why then is it not acquired by good and zealous Christians to fight for the truth, if the wicked employ it in the service of iniquity and error, to achieve their perverse and futile purposes?— Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching
There is a danger in forgetting what one has to say while working out a clever way to say it.— Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching
the interpreter and teacher of the divine scriptures, the defender of the true faith and the vanquisher of error, must communicate what is good and eradicate what is bad, and in this process of speaking must win over the antagonistic, rouse the apathetic, and make clear to those who are not conversant with the matter under discussion what they should expect.— Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching
The wisdom of what a person says is in direct proportion to his progress in learning the holy scriptures – and I am not speaking of intensive reading or memorization, but real understanding and careful investigation of their meaning. Some people read them but neglect them; by their reading they profit in knowledge, by their neglect they forfeit understanding. Those who remember the words less closely but penetrate to the heart of scripture to the eyes of their own heart are much to be preferred, but better than either is the person who not only quotes scripture when he chooses, but also understands it as he should.— Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching
What is the use of correct speech if it does not meet with the listener’s understanding? There is no point in speaking at all if our words are not understood by the people to whose understanding our words are directed.— Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching
The aim of our orator, then, when speaking of things which are just and holy and good – and he should not speak of anything else – the aim, as I say, that he pursues to the best of his ability when he speaks of these things is to be listened to with understanding, with pleasure, and with obedience. He should be in no doubt that any ability he has and however much he has derives more from his devotion to prayer than his dedication to oratory; and so by praying for himself and for those he is about to address, he must become a man of prayer before becoming a man of words.— Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching
More important than any amount of grandeur of style to those of us who seek to be listened to with obedience is the life of the speaker. A wise and eloquent speaker who lives a wicked life certainly educates many who are eager to learn, although he is useless to his own soul, as scripture puts it (Ecc 37:2). That is why Paul says ‘ Let Christ be proclaimed, whether in pretence or in truth’ (Phil 1:18). Christ is the truth, and yet the truth can be proclaimed even by the untruth, in the sense that things which are right and true may be proclaimed by a wicked and deceitful heart.— Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching
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