On Christian Doctrine

On Christian Doctrine

By St. Augustine of Hippo · Published by TAN Books

Overview

St. Augustine’s "On Christian Doctrine" provides a masterful guide to reading and interpreting Sacred Scripture rightly, grounding interpretation in the graces of faith, hope, and love so that Scripture leads the reader to God’s eternal truth. Covering language, signs, figurative expressions, and the proper relationship between faith and reason, it guards against interpretive error and shows how all Christian learning must be ordered toward love of God and neighbor.

• Explains principles for discerning truth and meaning in Sacred Scripture rooted in the Church’s tradition. 
• Shows how faith, hope, and love are indispensable graces for proper scriptural interpretation.
• Teaches the proper use of language, signs, and figurative expressions in Scripture. 
• Warns against reading Scripture too literally or too loosely, aligning interpretation with charity.
• Challenges readers to pursue not merely knowledge, but true understanding directed toward God.

Intended Audience

Christians seeking tradition-rooted instruction on reading and interpreting Scripture with theological clarity, catechists and clergy forming others in sound doctrine, and lay readers desiring a deeper, magisterially grounded understanding of how the Word of God should be approached and taught.