Augustine’s Biblical Hermeneutics: Its Three Characteristics and Significance for Today

In focusing mainly on Augustine’s De Doctrina Christiana, this paper discusses three major characteristics of his hermeneutics. First, he understands the Scriptures as signs that point to the transcendent reality of God. This understanding of the Scriptures anticipates today’s reader response theories and the hermeneutical concept, the ‘surplus of meaning’. It also rules out biblicism, by reminding us that the role of Scripture is provisional and instrumental. Second, Augustine’s hermeneutics has existential and moral tendencies. He emphasizes the essential connection between interpretation of Scripture and the interior attitude and moral quality of the interpreter. In this regard, Augustine’s hermeneutics anticipates and has influenced contemporary hermeneutical theory according to which a life-relation to the subject matter is essential to understanding. Third and finally, the rule of charity and the rule of faith are the most important criteria in Augustine’s hermeneutics. Such an emphasis on the rule of charity and the rule of faith is consonant with contemporary hermeneutics, which underscores that understanding takes place in a particular tradition.