On Christian Doctrine (De Doctrina Christiana)

Saint Augustine of Hippo · c. 426 AD

Ante-Nicene Fathers (Roberts–Donaldson), Roberts, Donaldson, and Coxe (eds.), Ante-Nicene Fathers, Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing, 1885–1887; digitized by CCEL.

Bishop of Hippo Regius in North Africa; the most influential theologian of the Latin West. Author of the Confessions (the first sustained spiritual autobiography in Christian literature), the City of God (the foundational Latin theology of history), On the Trinity, the exegetical Tractates on John, hundreds of letters, and the polemical works against the Manichaeans, Donatists, and Pelagians. Venerated as a saint in the Orthodox Church (commemorated 15 June). His Augustinian theology of original sin, predestination, and the procession of the Holy Spirit developed in directions the East did not follow; later Western controversies (Pelagian, Filioque, Reformation soteriology) are intelligible only against the background of his speculative works. His pastoral and exegetical writings are widely esteemed without qualification.

Contents

1. Introductory Note by the Editor(1 chapter)
2. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture(41 chapters)
3. Book II(43 chapters)
4. Book III(38 chapters)
5. Book IV(32 chapters)