The St. Augustine Theology Forum

"Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." [Jam 1:19-20]

"If he takes up rashly a meaning which the author whom he is reading did not intend, he often falls in with other statements which he cannot harmonize with this meaning. And if he admits that these statements are true and certain, then it follows that the meaning he had put upon the former passage cannot be the true one ... Faith will totter if the authority of Scripture begin to shake. And then, if faith totter, love itself will grow cold. For if a man has fallen from faith, he must necessarily also fall from love; for he cannot love what he does not believe to exist." (St. Augustine, On Christian Doctine, Book 1, Ch. 37, 397 AD)

"Since it is our duty fully to enjoy the truth which lives unchangeably, and since the triune God takes counsel in this truth for the things which He has made, the soul must be purified that it may have power to perceive that light, and to rest in it when it is perceived. And let us look upon this purification as a kind of journey or voyage to our native land. For it is not by change of place that we can come nearer to Him who is in every place, but by the cultivation of pure desires and virtuous habits." (St. Augustine, On Christian Doctine, Book 1, Ch. 10, 397 AD)