Confessions
St. Augustine
Book XII
Ch. 1
God promises the truth even in hard tasks.
Ch. 2
Earth is inferior to the heavens, the unseen, non-corporeal heavens.
Ch. 3
There was nothing before creation.
Ch. 4
The problem of religious language is written into Genesis. Our words are insufficient to explain pre-creation so we call it "void", or "abyss", or "formless".
Ch. 5
The mind struggles with the insufficiency of language to visualize pre-creation.
Ch. 6
The human mind does not have the context to imagine the true nothingness before creation.
Ch. 7
God created everything out of nothing.
Ch. 8
God made the unformed matter out of nothing. Then He shaped the matter into things.
Ch. 9
God's creations of intellectual substructures in which creation exists are not coeternal with God.
Ch. 10
"I was death to myself; in thee I have revived"
Ch. 11
God is eternal, alone has immortality, is unchangeable and, "thy will is not altered by temporal processes"
Only sin, which is an action that leads away from God is not from God.
Ch. 12
God did not leave everything formless.
Ch. 13
Augustine backs up his theories by interpreting the order of creation in Genesis.
Ch. 14
Augustine acknowledges that not everyone will buy his theory. Even believers might not conform to his theories on this.
Ch. 15
God is eternal. His will is eternal.
Ch. 16
God is the one supreme and true Good.
Augustine argues his point as being merited by conclusions flowing from premises other Christians must accept as valid.
Ch. 17
Augustine argues that the language of Genesis lends itself to a deeper philosophical meaning that is in line with his theories when viewed allegorically.
Ch. 18
Augustine argues that an allegorical understanding of Scripture is valid and profitable.
Augustine also notes that the truth in the Scriptures, while not relative, is reachable by various intellects and various perspectives and that it doesn't profit Christianity to argue about perspectives of the truth if those perspectives are of the truth indeed.
Ch. 19
Augustine asserts all things that exist are created by God and that is something all Christians agree on, even if they don't all believe Augustine's allegorical understanding of the phrase, "heaven and earth", meaning the things unseen, spiritual Creation and the visible, corporeal Creation.
Ch. 20
Augustine relates a number of interpretations of what is meant by, "in the beginning God created Heaven and Earth"
Ch. 21
Augustine relates an number of interpretations of the meaning of the phrase, "the earth was invisible and unformed and darkness was over the abyss"
Ch. 22
Augustine argues that the waters over which the spirit of the Lord hovered cannot be anything unmade; they were made by God though it isn't explicitly written in Genesis
Ch. 23
Augustine makes a distinction between asking what is the truth of the text and what Moses was trying to convey to his audience.
Ch. 24
Augustine argues that the truth of Scripture, "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" is clear and distinct. God created everything. He will firmly hold that truth. All other interpretations of the truth he will consider, but not hold firm as the interpretation is not as clear as the divine revelation.
Ch. 25
The theological arguments should not occur out of pride. When disagreements on interpretation happen, move beyond them and love thy neighbor.
Ch. 26
It's ok to have deeper meanings, further meanings within Scripture as long as they are true meanings.
Ch. 27
People understand more of the Scripture as they grow.
Ch. 28
Some see Scripture no longer as a nest as beginners do, but as a shady thicket harboring fruits deep inside it.
Ch. 29
Augustine explains matter comes before form in a non-sequential way in creation. Matter comes prior to form as a tune is formed simultaneously as the sounds that constitute it. The tune is prior to the sounds because it arranges the notes and the notes form the tune.
Ch. 30
Truth should bring concord, not discord.
The Scriptures were written primarily to minister for the light of truth and to increase the fruitfulness of the readers.
Ch. 31
Augustine argues that Moses knew the deep truths of what he wrote because it was revealed through him.
He also mentions he prefers to give credence to multiple interpretations so as not to exclude any bit of truth.
Ch. 32
Augustine prays for truth and to not be deceived in his understanding of the Truth
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