Liber de Catechizandis Rudibus
by Saint Aurelius Augustine of Hippo
Introduction
The Treatise "On the Catechising of the
Unlearned" was written by St. Augustine about the year A.D. 400. Its clear and
vigorous style, its methodical arrangement, sentences and whole passages of epigrammatic
power, and an eloquence which only the highest themes can inspire, exhibit to us a
mastermind, trained on the best models of classical antiquity, and working in the maturity
of genius.
As an introduction for the modern reader to the study of St.
Augustine, or indeed of patristic theology, it has various recommendations. It touches on
the leading heads of Augustinian doctrine, and contains a forecast of the last and
greatest of Christian apologies, the "City of God." It is brief and
uncontroversial. It reflects the weakness as well as the strength of the early
interpreters of Holy Scripture. It gives an incidental picture of Church life at a time
when the Church of Christ had entered upon a new phase of her existence. The sunshine of
Imperial patronage was even more dangerous than the persecuting of a Diocletian or a
Julian: and the effects may be traced, not only in the confusion of the boundaries of
temporal and spiritual authority, but also in the compatibility of a profession of
Christianity with a low moral standard. . .
. . .But the greatest of the Latin fathers has at any rate shown
us here the general lines upon which a system of Christian instruction ought to proceed,
and the spirit in which it should be given. His method is scientific: beginning with what
is nearest us, that is with the individual experience, with man as he is, unhappy and
aspiring towards a future blessedness and rest, he proceeds to what is above and outside
us, what explains and yet transcends our experience, and is matter of Revelation, absolute
truth.
-- Excerpts from Introduction by William York Fausset, Augustinus de Catechizandis Rudibus, ed. William York Fausset, Methuen & Co., Ltd.: London, 1912.
| Liber De Catechizandis Rudibus: | Latin Text | The source of the text and commentary is Augustinus de Catechizandis Rudibus, ed. W. York Fausset, Methuen & Co.: London, 1912. |
| English Text | ||
| Translation Commentary |
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