Doctrinal and Moral Treatises (NPNF I/III: Enchiridion, On the Catechising, On Faith and the Creed, On Continence, On Lying, etc.)
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Selection or partial work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Some scanning errors (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand) · 2 illegible passages, excluded from answers
- Extent:
- ~320,000 words · 1,520 passages
Cite this work
- APAAugustine. (n.d.). Doctrinal and Moral Treatises (NPNF I/III: Enchiridion, On the Catechising, On Faith and the Creed, On Continence, On Lying, etc.). Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/augustine/doctrinal-and-moral-treatises-npnf-i-iii-enchiridion-on-the-catechising-on-faith-and-the-creed-on-continence-on-lying-etc
- MLAAugustine. Doctrinal and Moral Treatises (NPNF I/III: Enchiridion, On the Catechising, On Faith and the Creed, On Continence, On Lying, etc.). Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/augustine/doctrinal-and-moral-treatises-npnf-i-iii-enchiridion-on-the-catechising-on-faith-and-the-creed-on-continence-on-lying-etc.
- ChicagoAugustine. Doctrinal and Moral Treatises (NPNF I/III: Enchiridion, On the Catechising, On Faith and the Creed, On Continence, On Lying, etc.). Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/augustine/doctrinal-and-moral-treatises-npnf-i-iii-enchiridion-on-the-catechising-on-faith-and-the-creed-on-continence-on-lying-etc.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
A gathering of Augustine's shorter treatises: the Enchiridion, On Catechising the Uninstructed, On Faith and the Creed, On Continence, and the two writings on lying.
Context and history
The Enchiridion is Augustine summarising himself: a short handbook of the whole faith organised around faith, hope and charity, written for someone who had asked for a brief one. The writings on lying are the ones still argued over: Augustine holds that it is never permissible to lie, not even to save a life, and it is among the severest positions in all Christian moral thought.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
and unchangeably good, all things were created; and these are not supremely and equally and unchangeably good, but yet they are good, even taken separately. Taken as a whole, however, they are very good, because their ensemble constitutes the universe in all its wonderful order and beauty. CHAP. II. — WHAT IS CALLED EVIL IN THE UNI- VERSE IS BUT THE ABSENCE OF GOOD. And in the universe, even that which is called evil, when it is regulated and put in its own place, only enhances our admiration of the good ; for we enjoy and value the good more when we compare it with the evil. For the Almighty God, who, as even the heathen acknowledge, has supreme power over all things, being Himself supremely good, would never permit the existence of anything evil among His works, if He were not so omnipotent and good that He can bring good even out of evil. For what is that which we call evil but the absence of good ? In the bodies of animals, disease and wounds mean nothing but the absence of health ; for when a cure is effected, that does not mean that the evils which were present — namely, the diseases and wounds — go away from the body and dwell elsewhere : they altogether cease to exist ; for the wound or disease is not a substance, but a defect in the fleshly substance, — the flesh itself being a substance, and therefore something good, of which those evils — that is, privations of the good which we call health — are accidents. Just in the same way, what are called vices in the soul are nothing but privations of natural good. And when they are cured, they are not transferred elsewhere : when they cease to exist in the healthy soul, they cannot exist anywhere else. CHAP. 12. ALL BEINGS WERE MADE GOOD, BUT NOT BEING MADE PERFECTLY GOOD, ARE LIABLE TO CORRUPTION.
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