One may mark off significant developments in his thought over this
twoscore years, but one can hardly miss the fundamental
consistency in his entire life's work. He was never interested in
writing a systematic summa theologica, and would have been
incapable of producing a balanced digest of his multifaceted
teaching. Thus, if he is to be read wisely, he must be read
widely -- and always in context, with due attention to the
specific aim in view in each particular treatise.
For the general reader who wishes to approach Augustine as
directly as possible, however, it is a useful and fortunate thing
that at the very beginning of his Christian ministry and then
again at the very climax of it, Augustine set himself to focus his
experience and thought into what were, for him, summings up. The
result of the first effort is the Confessions, which is his most
familiar and widely read work. The second is in the Enchiridion,
written more than twenty years later. In the Confessions, he
stands on the threshold of his career in the Church. In the
Enchiridion, he stands forth as triumphant champion of orthodox
Christianity.
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