Free post - On Christian Teaching

In this post, I would like to examine what Saint Augustine describes as "necessary before all else" in order to understand the Scripture, fear of God (Book 2, 16). Augustine states that this fear will inspire us to reflect on our mortality and impending death. However, fear of God begins to sound like faith by force. It seems counter-productive for a beneficent God to find it necessary to frighten his followers into their faith. This fear seems to imply that God is capable of punishing the unfaithful, which in turn seems to lead to many having faith simply because they have been intimidated by the fear of a wrathful or punishing God. I think that a faith based on awe of God's goodness and justness rather than one based on fear of God's power would be much more effective because the esteemed quality would be a more positive one.

Another aspect of Augustine's views that I take issue with is his belief that an interpretation of Scripture is correct if it is in line with "the great majority of catholic churches" (Book 2, 24). I think that this way of thinking can lead to trouble because the churches' views are subject to change with time. I am not particularly knowledgeable about the views of particular churches, but as a very general example, it would seem that at times of Inquisition movements within the catholic church, the church's views on what constitutes heresy and how to treat heresiarchs could change. This could lead a reader of Scripture to interprate a passage based on the church's intolerant view of heresy, and lead them to favor persecution of people simply expressing their beliefs. This is just an example of what I feel to be the problem with judging an interpretation's correctness or truthfulness based on whether it corresponds to the views of the majority of churches.