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An english text of Augustine's "On Christian Doctrine" is now available at IntraText. This is a very useful online text since it allows one the possiblity to see how a word or phrase appears throughout the whole book. Other Augustinian texts are also available from this page.So as to use the documents from IntraText to your benefit, consult this help page.

An article at Otium Sanctum about the Prodigal Son also incorporates a citation from Augustine's Sermon 112A about inwardness (interiority). Augustine has a particular way of understanding that phrase which says "and he entered into himself". Modern translations would render it " and he came to his senses." Augustine's rendering has somehow colored Catholic understanding of "conversion."

An article in Biblica caught my attention. It is about Psalm 133, one of the psalms that Augustine uses to illustrate the kind of community life he and his community of friends would like to live under the rule of the apostles. The author, Thijs Booij spends some time on the opening lines, and the relationship between the images of Hermon's dew and the blessing that God commands.He speaks of "progression" in the psalm that leads him to make his rendering of it. However, he finds that the relationship of "dew of Hermon" on the one hand, and its " falling on Zion" on the other as problematic. I have entertained the a different way of interpreting the psalm with the same theological conclusions that Booij draws from it.

Here are some online texts for De doctrina christiana Augustine's guide to the interpretation of Scriptures and its teaching English text from JOD English text from New Advent From Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) Latin text from Augustinus.IT

Here is an abridged version of Augustine's commentary on "The Our Father". I found it while preparing this article on today's gospel reading. Augustine's commentary on the Sermon on the Mount relates the seven petitions of the Our Father to the seven beatitudes and seven gifts of the Holy SpiritHallowed be thy nameblessed are the poor in spiritfearThy Kingdom comeblessed are the meekpietyThy will be doneblessed those who mournknowledgeGive us this day our daily breadblessed those who hunger for righteousnessfortitudeForgive us our trespassesblessed are the mercifulprudenceDo not lead us into temptationblessed are the pure of heartunderstandingDeliver us from Evilblessed are the peacemakerswisdom THE SON OF GOD, our Lord Jesus Christ, hath taught us a prayer; and tho He be the Lord Himself, as ye have heard and repeated in the creed, the only Son of God, yet He would not be alone.

Here is a brief description of "Inwardness" as found in Augustine's Confessions. The page comes from SparkNotes which is a website that helps college students go through some difficult reading requirements, from literature to philosophy.Inwardness is the method by which Augustine attains his clearest views of God. First reading in the Neoplatonists the advice to look inward for the truth, this idea will become central to what Augustine sees as the path to God. External things, for Augustine, simply scatter the mind into multiplicity and dependence on transient things. Turning away from these things and looking inward, Augustine searches for God.

In the article "Scripture Through The Eyes of Augustine", Steven Filippo gives a summary of the principles of bible interpretation that Augustine explains in the De Doctrina Christiana and he also shows how these are relevant for our times. As an example, he takes the problem of cultural relativism and sex and shows how Augustine's principle of interpretation -- love -- cannot be used to support an interpretation of the sacred text that favors adultery precisely because "love" for Augustine is based on an absolute reference, i.e. an order of love: Man above the world (and its lust), and God above all.

Here is a webpage from Bible-Researcher that reproduces some of the correspondences of Augustine and Jerome on this latter's work on the Vulgate. Whatever tension the two has on the Vulgate is traceable to the fact that Augustine prefers the Septuagint and the Itala versions based on it on the one hand, while Jerome would like to make use of the "Hebrew genius" by using the Massoretic text as the basis for his Latin translation. The following excerpt taken from Augustine's letter to Jerome in 403 is interesting in that it describes how a new translation can cause disturbance among the faithfulA certain bishop, one of our brethren, having introduced in the church over which he presides the reading of your version, came upon a word in the book of the prophet Jonah, of which you have given a very different rendering from that which had been of old familiar to the senses and memory of all the worshippers, and had been chanted for so many generations in the church.

"Augustine Day By Day" is now also online. If you don't have the book, then you can use this link to read selections from the works of St. Augustine of Hippo for meditation and prayer. We often use it for our local chapters.

We've seen Augustine, so how do we understand the "two books doctrine" for our times? Here is a webpage dealing on the question from within the problem of Evolution vs. Genesis. Catholics wouldn't have too great a problem with it, but bible-based Christians do have a problem with it. The article is entitled "How should we interpret the Two Books of God?" Here is the way the author states the problem: When we ask, "What is the relationship between science and Christian religion?", one answer — inherent conflict and science-religion warfare — was proposed in the late 1800s by John Draper and Andrew White.