First read the plain places. Then let them light the dark ones. Augustine will not let a man hunt figures before he knows the books, or treat an ox as only an ox when the apostle has already said what the ox means. Hebrew and Greek are not ornaments. They are the remedy when Latin translators multiply. Two renderings of Isaiah can both tell the truth: without faith you will not understand; without faith you will not abide. The Confessions then tries to measure a voice—and finds that while it sounds it is not finished, and when it is finished it is gone. We measure neither future, nor past, nor present, nor what is passing. And yet we do measure times. Aquinas takes the mind past its ordinary tools. Paul was caught up. He knew what he saw. He did not know whether he was in the body.

Today’s Readings:

Augustine of Hippo — On Christian Doctrine, Book 2, Chapters 9–12 (Sections 14–17)

Augustine of Hippo — The Confessions, Book 11, Chapter 27 (Section 34)

Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part 2–2, Question 175 (Rapture)

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