Hermeneutics and the Church: In Dialogue with Augustine

2 De doctrina christiana

43 2 De doctrina christiana eclecticism in action De doctrina was important for the young augustine: he seems to have released the first two books before he finished the work. the older augustine, moreover, felt compelled to complete it. this demonstrates that the work is an entirety and that he did not mean for it to be split into two. if the first half could really stand on its own, he might not have bothered to finish the work. the fact that he did so shows that he thought its two parts are actually constituent parts of a single process of interpretation. a survey of De doctrina will demonstrate its unity, while also setting the boundaries for the discussion with contemporary theological hermeneutics. Following the prologue, he establishes the program for De doctrina : “there are two things on which every interpretation of scripture [tractatio scripturarum] depends: the way of discovering [modus inveniendi] what should be understood and the way of presenting [modus proferendi] what has been understood” (1.1.1; 4.1.1). in other words, scriptural interpretation involves both understanding the text and sharing that understanding with others, and De doctrina follows this outline precisely: Books 1–3 treat the modus inveniendi, while Book 4 the modus proferendi. already at the start, one can note 44 ■ He rme n e utics an d tHe cHurcH that augustine speaks of interpretation—the subject of a hermeneutics —and includes within it not only textual understanding but also rhetorical delivery. For that reason, categorizing De doctrina as an expanded hermeneutics is particularly apt. Scripture has not been interpreted unless one shares what one has understood with another. By framing the issue in this manner, it becomes impossible to separate Books 1–3 from Book 4. they stand or fall together. Furthermore, by stressing that Books 1–3 belong with Book 4, the conclusion that the work is aimed primarily at the clergy proves persuasive. summary the prologue, navigating extremes De doctrina begins with a prologue in which augustine defends the work against three potential criticisms.1 the three groups of critics can be classified into two categories: those who need to focus more on the vertical relationship between humans and god and those who need to focus more on the horizontal relationship between humans and their fellow humans. indeed, augustine’s more forceful words are aimed at those who would forgo human assistance and appeal directly to god. his emphasis, in other words, is on the relationship between humans, a point that prepares for his discussion of the biblical texts as texts composed by humans, as well as his insistence in Book 4 on delivering to others what one has understood from scripture. De doctrina is, through and through, a book about humans being bound together in love. the prologue will be discussed in depth in chapter 3. What should be emphasized at this point is that augustine prepares for the text of De doctrina by navigating a middle path between a purely immanent and a purely transcendent approach to biblical interpretation. that is, interpretation involves prayer to god as well as listening to and speaking with humans. Both aspects are fundamental. neither exists without the other. So as the reader makes his or her way through De doctrina, it De doctrina christiana: eclecticism in action ■ 45 must be kept in mind that while these rules are guidelines shared by another human, they are shared in connection to god’s interaction with his creatures. the reader should pay attention to what augustine says, while nevertheless praying for god to open his or her eyes to both augustine’s text and the text of the Bible. book 1, the res of scripture and how to relate to them after the initial division between the modus inveniendi and the modus proferendi, augustine begins the discussion of the modus inveniendi (Books 1–3) by further dividing the topic into signs and things (signa et res): “all teaching (omnis doctrina) is either of things or signs, but things are learned through signs” (1.2.2).2 this semiotic division represents one of the most discussed aspects of De doctrina. in fact, it has been argued that augustine invented what has become the discipline of semiotics.3 his signification theory will be discussed below when treating Book 2; here in Book 1, augustine simply states that signs “are those things which are clearly used to...