Enchiridion On Faith, Hope and Love
by Saint Augustine
CHAPTER I
THE 0CCASION
AND PURPOSE OF THIS "MANUAL"
1.
I cannot say, my dearest son Laurence, how much your learning pleases
me,
and how much I desire that you should be wise--though not one of
those of
whom
it is said: "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputant of
this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?"1
Rather, you
should
be one of those of whom it is written, "The multitude of the
wise is the health
of
the world"2;
and also you should be the kind of man the apostle wishes those men
to
be to whom he said,3 "I
would have you be wise in goodness and simple in evil."4
2.
Human wisdom consists in piety. This you have in the book of the
saintly
Job,
for there he writes that Wisdom herself said to man, "Behold,
piety is
wisdom."5
If, then, you ask what kind of piety she was
speaking of, you will find it
more
distinctly designated by the Greek term qeosebeia,
literally, "the service of
God."
The Greek has still another word for "piety," ensebeia,
which also signifies
"proper
service." This too refers chiefly to the service of God. But no
term is better
than
qeosebeia, which clearly
expresses the idea of the man's service of God as the
source
of human wisdom.
When
you ask me to be brief, you do not expect me to speak of great issues
in
a
few sentences, do you? Is not this rather what you desire: a brief
summary or a
short
treatise on the proper mode of worshipping [serving] God?
3.
If I should answer, "God should be worshipped in faith, hope,
love," you
would
doubtless reply that this was shorter than you wished, and might then
beg
for
a brief explication of what each of these three means: What should be
believed,
what
should be hoped for, and what should be loved? If I should answer
these
questions,
you would then have everything you asked for in your letter. If you
have
kept
a copy of it, you can easily refer to it. If not, recall your
questions as I discuss
them.
4.
It is your desire, as you wrote, to have from me a book, a sort of
enchiridion,6
as it might be called--something to have "at
hand"--that deals with
your
questions. What is to be sought after above all else? What, in view
of the divers
heresies,
is to be avoided above all else? How far does reason support
religion; or
what
happens to reason when the issues involved concern faith alone; what
is the
beginning
and end of our endeavor? What is the most comprehensive of all
explanations?
What is the certain and distinctive foundation of the catholic faith?
You
would have the answers to all these questions if you really
understood what a
man
should believe, what he should hope for, and what he ought to love.
For these
are
the chief things--indeed, the only things--to seek for in religion.
He who turns
away
from them is either a complete stranger to the name of Christ or else
he is a
heretic.
Things that arise in sensory experience, or that are analyzed by the
intellect,
may be demonstrated by the reason. But in matters that pass beyond
the
scope
of the physical senses, which we have not settled by our own
understanding,
and
cannot--here we must believe, without hesitation, the witness of
those men by
1I
Cor. 1:20.
2Wis.
6:26 (Vulgate).
3Rom.
16:19.
4A
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]."
5Job
28:28.
6A
transliteration of the Greek egceiridion, literally, a handbook or
manual.
whom
the Scriptures (rightly called divine) were composed, men who were
divinely
aided
in their senses and their minds to see and even to foresee the things
about
which
they testify.
5.
But, as this faith, which works by love,7
begins to penetrate the soul, it
tends,
through the vital power of goodness, to change into sight, so that
the holy and
perfect
in heart catch glimpses of that ineffable beauty whose full vision is
our
highest
happiness. Here, then, surely, is the answer to your question about
the
beginning
and the end of our endeavor. We begin in faith, we are perfected in
sight.8
This
likewise is the most comprehensive of all explanations. As for the
certain and
distinctive
foundation of the catholic faith, it is Christ. "For other
foundation," said
the
apostle, "can no man lay save that which has been laid, which is
Christ Jesus."9
Nor
should it be denied that this is the distinctive basis of the
catholic faith, just
because
it appears that it is common to us and to certain heretics as well.
For if we
think
carefully about the meaning of Christ, we shall see that among some
of the
heretics
who wish to be called Christians, the name of
Christ is held in honor, but
the
reality itself is not among them. To make all this plain would take
too long--
because
we would then have to review all the heresies that have been, the
ones that
now
exist, and those which could exist under the label "Christian,"
and we would
have
to show that what we have said of all is true of each of them. Such a
discussion
would
take so many volumes as to make it seem endless.10
6.
You have asked for an enchiridion,
something you could carry around, not
just
baggage for your bookshelf. Therefore we may return to these three
ways in
which,
as we said, God should be served: faith, hope, love. It is easy to
say what one
ought
to believe, what to hope for, and what to love. But to defend our
doctrines
against
the calumnies of those who think differently is a more difficult and
detailed
task.
If one is to have this wisdom, it is not enough just to put an
enchiridion in the
hand.
It is also necessary that a great zeal be kindled in the heart.
