Augustine has been called one of the greatest Christian teachers in church history. Catholics love him for his teachings on the church and dislike his teachings on grace. Protestants love him for his teachings on grace and dislike him for his teachings on the church. He is probably best known for the first true autobiography: Confessions. Nothing like it had existed before, and Confessions is a marvel of devotion, prayer, abstract theology and an honest account of conversion and growth. City of God is an amazing defence of Christianity against its pagan critics. His Enchiridion is also worthy of study.
Lesser known among Augustine’s works is his manual On Christian Doctrine. Written in four parts, it is meant to guide one to interpret Scripture rightly and then teach it effectively.
The first book is by far the richest for Christian devotion. Here Augustine distinguishes between things that should be “enjoyed” (God alone) and those that should be “used” (everything else, including Scripture, as a means to lead to God). He teaches his famous ordo amoris (order of loves), explaining the importance of loving things according to their worth, and also according to their kind. He explains that it is possible to love things wrongly – to love them too much, or too little. He writes,
“Now he is a man of just and holy life who forms an unprejudiced estimate of things, and keeps his affections also under strict control, so that he neither loves what he ought not to love, nor fails to love what he ought to love, nor loves that more which ought to be loved less, nor loves that equally which ought to be loved either less or more, nor loves that less or more which ought to be loved equally. No sinner is to be loved as a sinner; and every man is to be loved as a man for God’s sake; but God is to be loved for His own sake” (On Christian Doctrine, I, xxvii).
The remaining books teach about interpreting Scripture, ambiguous and figurative language, and the art of Christian persuasion.
Many Christians would have their Christian lives radically changed by meditating deeply on Augustine’s ordo amoris. On Christian Doctrine is worth every Christian’s attention.
