ST. AUGUSTINE

FAITH HOPE AND CHARITY

TRANSLATED AND ANNOTATED

BY

The Very Reverend

LOUIS A. ARAND, S.S., S.T.D.

President of Divinity College

Catholic University of America

Washington, D.C.

THE NEWMAN PRESS

New York, N.Y./Mahwah, N.J.

Nihil Obstat:

Johannes Quasten, S.T. D.

Censor Deputatus

Imprimatur:

Michael J. Curley, D.D.

Archiepiscopus Baltimorensis et Washingtonensis die 11 Martii 1947

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Library of Congress

Catalog Card Number: 78-62450

ISBN: 0-8091-0045-2

Published by The Newman Press

an imprint of Paulist Press

997 Macarthur Boulevard

Mahwah, New Jersey 07430

www.paulistpress.com

Ancient Christian Writers

THE WORKS OF THE FATHERS IN TRANSLATION

No. 3

CONTENTS

ST. AUGUSTINE: FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY

Introduction

The Treatise

INDEX

ST. AUGUSTINE FAITH HOPE AND CHARITY

Augustine, Retractationes 2. 63: I have also written a book on Faith, Hope, and Charity. The occasion was a request by the person to whom it is addressed that I write for him a little volume which he could always have at hand, a book of the sort called enchiridion by the Greeks. In this work I have, I think, given a sufficiently thorough survey of the worship which we must give to God. That this constitutes true wisdom in man, is established by Divine Scripture. The book begins as follows: “I cannot tell you, beloved Laurentius, how delighted I am with your learning.”

INTRODUCTION

The title given to the book here offered in a new translation is the only one by which the author himself referred to it. For centuries past it has been more familiarly known as the Enchiridion, due no doubt to the fact that three times in the treatise itself (4, 6, 122) mention is made by St. Augustine of the request he had received from a certain Laurentius to compose for him an enchiridion,1 or handbook, which would touch briefly on the principal points of the Christian faith. Augustine took some pains to show that he himself had so understood the request and then set himself to the task. Although he allowed himself at times to be drawn into rather lengthy discussions, he nevertheless always remained aware of his main purpose. Even so, when he reached the end of the treatise he had composed, he expressed his doubts as to whether he had really succeeded in holding the finished product down to an enchiridion such as Laurentius had requested, and preferred him to be the judge.2

But the term Enchiridion can only indicate the purpose of an author to present something in outline; it tells us nothing about the contents of the book or the nature of the thing outlined. Hence, it has seemed preferable to give to the treatise the title by which Augustine himself always referred to it, lifting it from the position of sub-title to which custom has relegated it. ...