Augustine dryly comments
that the shortest complete summary of the Christian faith is that
God is to be served by man in faith, hope, and love. Then,
acknowledging that this answer might indeed be _too_ brief, he
proceeds to expand it in an essay in which he tries unsuccessfully
to subdue his natural digressive manner by imposing on it a
patently artificial schematism. Despite its awkward form,
however, the Enchiridion is one of the most important of all of
Augustine's writings, for it is a conscious effort of the
theological magistrate of the Western Church to stand on final
ground of testimony to the Christian truth.
For his framework, Augustine chooses the Apostles' Creed and
the Lord's Prayer. The treatise begins, naturally enough, with a
discussion of God's work in creation. Augustine makes a firm
distinction between the comparatively unimportant knowledge of
nature and the supremely important acknowledgment of the Creator
of nature. But creation lies under the shadow of sin and evil and
Augustine reviews his famous (and borrowed!) doctrine of the
privative character of evil. From this he digresses into an
extended comment on error and lying as special instances of evil.
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