Episode notes
True eloquence in teaching consists in making clear what was obscure, and a wooden key that opens the lock is better than a golden one that does not. Augustine recalls Cicero’s three aims of the orator—to teach, to delight, and to persuade—and insists that teaching is the necessity. The hearer must be moved as well as instructed, for practical truth is useless unless the will is subdued to practice. In the Confessions he sets out the various ways the words “In the beginning” may be taken: the Word co-eternal with God, the universal mass of the corporeal world, the formless matter of spiritual and corporeal creatures, or the very commencement of the work. All who believe Moses spoke in the spirit of truth may hold one or another of these readings. Aquinas asks what effects Baptism produces. It remits all sin and all debt of punishment, opens the kingdom, and imprints an indelible character. Concupiscence remains as the material of struggle. Circumcision justified only by faith in the future Christ; the preparatory rites dispose but do not regenerate. The character is always given; grace follows when no obstacle is placed.
### Today’s Readings:
Augustine — On Christian Doctrine, Book 4, Chapters 11–13 (Sections 26–29)
Augustine — The Confessions, Book 12, Chapter 20 (Section 29)
Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part 3, Questions 69–71
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