How did Augustine interpret the Bible?

Answer 1

St. Augustine, above all, interpreted the Sacred Scriptures "with the Church". As he knew as well as any, that the Church, itself, wrote the Sacred Scriptures, decided which books were authentic in the New Testament, and as Christ's Body, is the only legitimate interpreter of Sacred Scripture. St. Augustine believed firmly that Biblical Interpretation is govered by the firm belief that Scipture is the inspired word of God, expressed in human language. God's Word was written under the direction and inspiration of the Holy Spirit and - at the same time - was written by true human authors with their intellectual capacities and limitations. The thought and the words belong both to God and to human beings in such a way that the whole Bible comes simultaneously from God and from the inspired human authors. The Catholic Encycylopedia lists the different methods of interpreting Scripture, and which are directly attributable to St. Augustine. See the link below the answer box. Since The Bible is God's own book, its study must be begun and prosecuted with a spirit of reverence and prayer. The Fathers insist on this need in many passages. St. Athanasius calls the Scriptures the fountain that quenches our thirst for justice and supplies us with the doctrine of piety (Ep. fest. xxxix); St. Augustine (Reply to FaustusXIII.18) wishes them to be read for a memorial of our faith, for the consolation of our hope, and for an exhortation to charity