that I may understand.” Indeed, Augustine said, “First believe, then understand” (On the Creed, 4). For “if we wished to know and then believe, we should not be able to either know or believe” (On the Gospel of John, 27.9). However, these passages taken alone leave the wrong impression of Augustine’s teaching on the role of reason in the Christian Faith. Augustine also held that there is a sense in which reason comes before faith. He declared that “no one indeed believes anything unless he has first