In Books XII and XIII, Augustine
elaborates, in loving patience and with considerable allegorical
license, the mysteries of creation -- exegeting the first chapter
of Genesis, verse by verse, until he is able to relate the whole
round of creation to the point where we can view the drama of
God's enterprise in human history on the vast stage of the cosmos
itself. The Creator is the Redeemer! Man's end and the beginning
meet at a single point!
The Enchiridion is a briefer treatise on the grace of God and
represents Augustine's fully matured theological perspective --
after the magnificent achievements of the De Trinitate and the
greater part of the De civitate Dei, and after the tremendous
turmoil of the Pelagian controversy in which the doctrine of grace
was the exact epicenter. Sometime in 421, Augustine received a
request from one Laurentius, a Christian layman who was the
brother of the tribune Dulcitius (for whom Augustine wrote the De
octo dulcitii quaestionibus in 423-425). This Laurentius wanted a
handbook (enchiridion) that would sum up the essential Christian
teaching in the briefest possible form.
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