St. Augustine On Single Truths

Augustine conveys that he would like to write a book in which a reader, “could find re-echoed in my words whatever truths he was able to apprehend,” (XII.31) and further stresses his concerns regarding single truths when reading and interpreting Scripture. Augustine essentially strives to bring to a full circle what he is trying to state throughout the entirety of Confessions, which is conveying the issue with single truths and the importance of language and philosophy in attaining Truth. Augustine often establishes the correlation and importance between philosophy and Scripture, by depicting his reliance on antiquity and how language, such as Latin, is crucial to understanding Scripture. Augustine refers back to St. Paul, and states that St. Paul warned of misleading philosophies, (Book III.4) yet at the same time, Augustine quotes Cicero, and makes the point that we have to start from somewhere. (Book III.4) As Augustine states, “I believe that it was by your will that I came across those books before I studied the Scriptures so that later …show more content…
Augustine blames the vast amount of disagreements that people have regarding the meaning of heaven and earth, on single truths and lack of understanding, in the simplicity of the language used in Scripture. Augustine believes that the bigger picture relies on understanding the purpose that G-d had when Moses wrote down the words, so there is no real harm if we all attempt to understand what Moses meant. (XI.20) The confusion arises out of what is taught by the elders, especially when it comes down to Scripture. Because Scripture was written in such a simple way, the interpretations of the elders are fed into the minds of the students, and it may not necessarily be true. (I.16) Augustine substantially argues that Truth belongs to G-d alone; it doesn’t belong to him, or anyone else. Consequentially, nobody can claim that another man’s truth is false, nor believe that it is entirely true, for that matter.