A valid argument can still land on a false conclusion, and a true opinion can be joined by a bad one. Augustine draws that line in On Christian Doctrine, then turns it on definition and eloquence: the rules stay true even when poets, heretics, or a clever speaker put them to a false use. In the Confessions he looks further back, at the earth that was invisible and formless, and at the darkness on the face of the deep. That darkness was not a second substance. It was the absence of light, as silence is the absence of sound. And yet the formless matter was not altogether nothing. Aquinas then asks whether it was fitting for God to become incarnate, and whether that coming was necessary. Goodness communicates itself, and the highest good in the highest way. God could have restored us otherwise. There was no more fitting way. Scripture assigns the Incarnation to sin, and the fullness of time was neither the beginning of the world nor its end.

Today’s Readings:

Augustine — On Christian Doctrine, Book 2, Chapters 33–36 (Sections 51–54) Augustine — The Confessions, Book 12, Chapter 3 (Section 3) Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part 3, Question 1 (Articles 1–6)

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Today we move from reasoning, to creation, to disciplined Christian life. In On Christian Doctrine, Augustine explains why Christians should know something of the mechanical arts and especially logic: reasoning can help us understand Scripture, but it must never become an exercise in sophistry, and the laws of logic are not human inventions but realities we discover in the order God has made. In Confessions, Augustine turns upward from the visible heavens to the mysterious “heaven of heavens,” distinguishing the created world we see from the higher reality belonging especially to God. Finally, Aquinas asks why there are different religious orders, why both active and contemplative forms of religious life can be legitimate, and how vows bind those who enter them. Together, the readings ask what it means to use the mind, contemplate creation, and order one’s life toward God. Pasted text Pasted text Pasted text

Today’s Readings:

Augustine of Hippo — On Christian Doctrine, Book 2, Chapters 30–32, Sections 47–50

Augustine of Hippo — The Confessions, Book 12, Chapter 2, Section 2

Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part 2–2, Questions 188–189 — Forms of Religious Life and Entry into Religion

Olympiads and consuls are not baptism, but they can keep a reader from making Christ forty-six years old because the temple took forty-six years to build. Augustine will use profane history that way, and he will let Ambrose use it to unmask the slander that Jesus learned His words from Plato. Herbs that heal when drunk are one thing; herbs that heal when hung on the neck are another. The stars may be calculated; they are almost no help to Scripture, and they sit too near the diviners. The Confessions opens a new book with the poverty of inquiry: the hand that knocks works harder than the hand that receives. The promise still stands, because Truth made it. Aquinas then names a school, not a finished saint. Poverty, continence, and obedience are the vows that clear the three chief obstacles. The religious does not claim to have arrived. He claims to stay in the practice.

Today’s Readings:

Augustine of Hippo — On Christian Doctrine, Book 2, Chapters 28–29 (Sections 42–46)

Augustine of Hippo — The Confessions, Book 12, Chapter 1 (Section 1)

Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part 2–2, Questions 186–187 (The Religious Life and Its Discipline)

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