GORDON-CONWELL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

WORSHIP AS THE CHRISTIAN LIFE: THE THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES IN

AUGUSTINE’S ENCHIRIDION

A RESEARCH PAPER SUBMITTED TO DR. FAIRBAIRN

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE COMPLETION OF CH/TH 679 PATRISTIC THEOLOGY

BY

JONATHAN S. JONES

JACKSON, TENNESSEE

AUGUST 13, 2013

Worship as the Christian Life: The Theological Virtues in

Augustine’s Enchiridion

All throughout history Christians have needed summaries of

their faith. Condensed, user-friendly explanations of the

Christian message are called ‘catechisms’, and some of the more

well-known examples include the Westminster Catechism, Luther’s

Smaller, or Larger, Catechism, or the Catechism of the Catholic

Church. Augustine of Hippo also wrote a catechism of his own

known as the Enchiridion. As a summary statement of the Christian

life, Augustine articulated his most comprehensive understanding

of the Christian life via the interconnected workings of faith,

hope, and love. In other words, for Augustine the most

comprehensive presentation of the faith comes by expounding these

three graces. This is no small statement.

It is the purpose of this paper to explore Augustine’s

understanding, primarily as laid out in the Enchiridion, of how

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faith, hope, and love relate to one another and comprehensively

constitute Christian worship. Augustine saw these three aspects

of the faith as not simply three separate characteristics of the

Christian life, but that they are three interwoven strands

constituting the holistic experience of the Christian life known

as worship.1

Augustine of Hippo has been called the “most prominent

‘Latin’ or ‘Western’ church father, [who] sowed the seeds of

virtually the entire Western theological edifice that has been

built from his day forward."2 His life of 76 years can be seen

as two halves divided by his involuntary ordination to the

priesthood: his earlier years covering his education and life

1 Though this paper will focus primarily on the Enchiridion, other noteworthy passages in Augustine’s writing on similar topics are a letter written to Jerome in 415, which Langan discusses in great detail, as well as Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine, Bk. I chs.37-40. John P. Langan, “Augustine On the Unity and the Interconnection of the Virtues” Harvard Theological Review 72, no.1-2 (Jan.1, 1979): 81-95. http://proxy.gordonconwell.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.gordonconwell.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rfh&AN=ATLA0000776524&site=ehost-live&scope=site (accessed July 16, 2013).; Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, ed. Robert Maynard Hutchins and Mortimer J. Adler, trans. Edward Bouverie Pusey. Great Books of the Western World 18 (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952), 635-636. 2 Bradley G. Green, “Augustine” in Shapers of Christian Orthodoxy (Downers Grove, IL:IVP, 2010), 235.

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away from the faith, and his later years spent in service to the

church.

In the greater context of Augustine’s life and works, the

Enchiridion is one of the latter works as well as one of the

clearest and most succinct expressions of his essential thought.

3 According to De Vries, “this little enchiridion displays his most

integrated picture of down-to-earth life before God”, and “though

small in size, The Enchiridion certainly deserves its position as a

classic in Christian writing.”4 This work has the benefit of

many years of experience and reflection as he wrote it in the

last decade of his life with its date of composition estimated to

be between 419-422 at the request of one named Laurentius.5 It

3 Green gives the following advice for newcomers to Augustine’s thought: “[i]f a reader wants a shorter introduction to the ‘big picture’ of Agustine’sthought, I would recommend The Augustine Catechism: The Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love.” Green, 290.4 Paul De Vries, “Augustine’s Enchiridion: A Handbook for Earthy Christian Living,” in Christianity Today/Christian History 15 (July 1987). http://www.christianitytoday.come/ch/1987/issue15/1530.html (accessed July 16, 2013).5 Ramsey explains that this is based on two factors: 1) since Jerome’s death occurred in 419, Augustine’s reference in chapter 87, therefore, means it could not have composed any earlier; and 2) the Enchiridion is referenced in oneof Augustine’s later works, The Eight Questions to Dulcitus, which was composed most likely in 422. Thus, the Enchiridion could not have been written any later. John Cavadini dates the composition between 421-422, though no justification is given for being more specific. Boniface Ramser, Introduction to The Augustine Catechism: The Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love, by Augustine (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1999), 9; John Cavadini, “Enchiridion” in Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia, ed. Allan D. Fitzgerald, John Cavadini, Marianne Djuth, James J.

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is a great virtue of the Enchiridion that it comes near the very

end of Augustine’s life and this justifies considering it as “a

work of Augustine’s high maturity”6 and a worthy place to begin

exploring Augustine’s thought in depth.

The profound nature of the Enchiridion is evidenced by its

balance of covering a wide variety of topics while maintaining

its overall simplicity and brevity. A sample of the topics

discussed in the short work include the essence of evil, lying,

God’s judgment, Adam’s sin, the incarnation, angels, baptism, the

crucifixion, the church, almsgiving, predestination, grace, and

more. In spite of its breadth and (at times) digressive style,

the overall shape of the Enchiridion is very simple, and the

cohesive message of the work consists in Augustine’s

understanding of the interconnected nature of the three

theological virtues. Faith, hope, and love receive their

clearest treatment at the very beginning and very end, providing

the context for discussing the various topics along the way.

O’Donnell, and Frederick Van Fleteren (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999), 296.6 Ramsey, 9.

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Within this faith-hope-love context Augustine exposits the Lord’s

Prayer and a creed. The work is generally summarized as follows:

Prologue: chapters 1-8;

Faith: chapters 9-113 (using the Creed as its template of topics to discuss);

Hope: chapters 114-116 (using the Lord’s Prayer as its primary teaching content);

Love: chapters 117-121.7

The prologue opens with encouraging Laurentius in his desire

for wisdom. Since the work is a response to religion’s (and

philosophy’s, for that matter) fundamental questions, such as

“what ought to be man’s chief end in life?” and “what is the sum

of the whole body of doctrine?” Augustine quickly moves to

establishing his position from which he will give his answers.8

Rather than addressing each of Laurentius’ questions

specifically, Augustine conflates them into one single issue:

“the proper mode of worshipping God”.9 In other words, an

appropriate understanding of worship is what Laurentius truly

7 Cavadini, 296.8 Augustine, Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1996), .3-5.9 Ibid., 3.

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seeks, and, therefore, the ultimate meaning and goal of

everything that follows. 10 Then, what is “the proper mode of

worshipping God”? Augustine answers: “God is to be worshipped

with faith, hope, and love”. Knowing that this answer is not

sufficient to satisfy the request for a handbook, even though it

is the whole answer, he continues with the work. By resituating

Laurentius’ questions into the one topic of how to truly worship

God, Augustine establishes the work’s cohesion and sets up the

three-part answer of ‘with faith, hope, and love’.

The best starting place is chapter eight where Augustine

summarizes the distinctions and overlaps between faith, hope, and

love. Shaw’s title for this chapter is fitting: “The

Distinction Between Faith and Hope, and the Mutual Dependence of

Faith, Hope, and Love”.11 Worthy of notice is the “distinction-

dependence” relationship. Each grace is distinct from the other

two, but none of them are independent. Without one of them,

10 “Now if I should answer, that God is to be worshipped with faith, hope, andlove, you will at once say that this answer is too brief, and will ask me briefly to unfold the objects of each of these three graces, viz., what we areto believe, what we are to hope for, and what we are to love. And when I have done this, you will have an answer to all the questions you asked in your letter.” Ibid., 3 (emphasis mine).11 Ibid.,7.

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whichever that one may be, they all lose their meaning or

direction. Nevertheless, when deciding which of these to discuss

first in an isolated context, faith must come first. An accurate

understanding of hope and love depend upon a sound comprehension

of faith.12 Following Augustine’s lead, then, faith will be

considered first, then hope since it is derived from faith. Love

will be discussed last, for it provides the necessary counter-

part to each of these and is worship’s eschatological goal.

Back to Augustine’s original point of “true worship” as

Laurentius’ essential question, faith is worship’s beginning

point: “Here surely is an answer to your question as to what is

the starting-point, and what the goal [of the catholic faith is]:

we begin in faith…”13 Faith is not a stopping point, not a place

at which one arrives, but a departure point from which one

engages in worship. Faith is closely tied with belief. For

Augustine, the verb “believing” is practically interchangeable 12 On the other hand, love could be discussed first because of its superior nature: “…in the order of perfection, charity precedes faith and hope, because both faith and hope are formed by charity and receive from charity their perfection as virtues.” Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica, vol.2. Ed. Robert Maynard Hutchins and Mortimer J. Adler, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Great Books of the Western World 20 (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952), 62.13 Enchiridion, 4 (emphasis mine); cf. Ibid., 125-126.

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with his concept of “faith”.14 The overall shape of Augustine’s

treatment of faith is structured around commenting on a Creed.

There is debate as to which exact creed Augustine comments on,

however, given the general continuity among the early church’s

creeds, this is not crucial. What is important is that faith

ushers the believer beyond knowledge into action, the first step

in worship, therefore, is confession of God’s divine activity in

history.

Consequently, the content of one’s confession determines the

role which hope and love play in the life of Christian worship.

Faith must have an object toward which it is directed. One

cannot merely believe but must believe in something or someone,

its object, whether good or bad. Augustine states that “faith

may have for its object evil as well as good; for both good and evil

are believed, and the faith that believes them is not evil, but good.”

Christian faith strives toward that which is ultimate happiness

through confession of eternal life as God’s ultimate gift: “when

the mind has been imbued with the first elements of that faith

14 Eugene TeSelle, “Faith” in Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia, ed. Allan D. Fitzgerald, John Cavadini, Marianne Djuth, James O’Donnell, and Frederick Van Fleteren (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999), 347.

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which worketh by love, it endeavors by purity of life to attain

unto sight, where the pure and perfect in heart know that

unspeakable beauty, the full vision of which is supreme happiness.” Hope

and love integrate with faith at this point to steady the

believer toward God’s eternal happiness, lest misdirected worship

turn into idolatry and faith into destruction.15

Faith relates to all phases of history. 16 A quick reading

of Augustine’s creed will show that it is a summary of history

centered around God’s activity in time, a distilled reflection of

divine activity. But, not limited to the past, faith also takes

into account the present experience and the anticipated future.

In accordance with Hebrews chapter 11, Augustine defines faith as

“the evidence of things not seen”, and says “we should use the word

‘faith’ as the Scriptures have taught us, applying it to those things

15 Metcalfe words this well: “while one might maintain the correct set of beliefs, without love that moves those beliefs into action, and without the hope that a future good will result from one’s love and faith, faith sets up ahappiness that excludes its beholder: faith becomes terror.” Jeffrey S. Metcalfe, “Hoping Without a Future: Augustine’s Theological Virtues Beyond Melancholia” in Anglican Theological Review 95, no.2 (Spring 2013), 239. http://proxy.gordonconwell.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.gordonconwell.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pbh&AN=87427938&site=ehost-live&scope=site (accessed July 16, 2013).16 “Faith, moreover, is concerned with the past, the present, and the future all three.” Enchiridion, 7 (emphasis mine).

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which are not seen”.17 An important distinction arises here between

faith and knowledge. Knowledge only accounts for what is seen or

tangible, while faith surpasses the material, not negating it,

but reaching for what is beyond it.18 Although Jesus’ disciples

saw and touched his resurrected body, faith sustained their

belief after his ascension and continued to point them and their

ministries toward the kingdom of God. As faith is “evidence of

things not seen” and relates not just to the past, but to the

present and future, too, faith thus transcends history.

Believing is a supernatural activity opening the door for the

transforming work of hope and love.

Once faith has been sufficiently expounded via the creed,

Augustine transitions to commenting on the second didactic

structure, the Lord’s Prayer. Both hope and love distinguish

from faith by their prayerful nature: “faith believes, hope and

love pray”.19 Together, the creed and the Lord’s prayer

harmonize as the symphony of the worshipful life.

17 Ibid., 8 (emphases mine).18 TeSelle, 348.19 Enchiridion, 6.

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Faith leads into hope as confessing the creed becomes the

interlude for praying the Lord’s Prayer. In Augustine’s words,

“[o]ut of this confession of faith... springs the good hope of

believers”.20 Hope is distinct from faith in two ways: first,

hope is only oriented toward the future, and, hope only takes

what is good as its object. 21 Hope relates to the concept of

waiting by nature of being future-oriented as an unfulfilled

expectation. This connection is evident when Augustine says,

“[w]hen, then, we believe that good is about to come, this is

nothing else but to hope for it.”22 Hope is more than waiting, though,

since simply waiting can be met by something bad. Only good is

anticipated by hope, namely, eternal life. Accompanied by faith

and hope, worship is a foretaste of eternal happiness.23 Faith

and hope are distinct as the former is more a matter of mental

transcendence beyond history toward the unseen, while the latter

progresses toward a state of engaged anticipation in worship.

20 Enchiridion, 132 (italics original).21 “[H]ope has for its object only what is good, only what is future, and only what affects the man who entertains the hope. For these reasons, then, faith must be distinguished from hope, not merely as a matter of verbal propriety, but because they are essentially different.” Ibid., 8 (emphases mine).22 Ibid., 9 (emphasis mine).23 Metcalfe, 236.

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Augustine sees hope as the sphere in which Christians on

earth reside. In chapter CXVIII Augustine categorizes the

Christian life according to four stages, ranging from initial

ignorance of sin to the eventual achieving of perfect peace.

Significant to note is the third stage which illustrates his

picture of the Christian’s current state as “a man of good hope”

living justified by faith:

But if God has regard to him, and inspired him with faith in God’s help, and the Spirit of God begins to work in him, thenthe mightier power of love strives against the power of the flesh…he lives the life of the just by faith, and lives in righteousness so far as he does not yield to evil lust, but conquers it by the love of holiness. This is the third state of a man of good hope…24

Augustine’s principle description for the current state of the

life is that of ‘good hope.’

Here is an example of Augustine’s understanding of the

interconnected nature of the virtues. Righteous and ethical

living, i.e., virtuous living, is evidence of the hopeful life.

The hopeful life is grounded in professed faith working itself

out in love. Therefore, all virtuous activity enlists the aid of

24 Enchiridion, 137 (emphases mine).12

the other virtues.25 Far from being a passive anticipation, hope

gives action to the sound understanding provided by faith as it

awaits its bright future. Hopeful living is the existence for

Christians who have glimpsed with faith what God’s love promises

to give and who wish to prepare themselves for it. What Metcalfe

refers to as “happiness in expectation”, he concurs that

“[a]ccording to Augustine, this particular function of hope

undergirds the entire project of Christian living.”26

Among the three graces pride of place undoubtedly goes to

love. As Van Bavel puts it, “[l]ove is the profoundest thing one

can say of the human being.”27 Because God’s nature is love, it

25 Langan, p.87.26 Metcalfe, 239 (emphasis mine); cf. Augustine, City of God, ed. Robert Maynard Hutchins and Mortimer J. Adler, trans. Marcus Dods. Great Books of the Western World 18 (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952), 523-524 (emphasis mine): “if any man uses this life with a reference to that other which he ardently loves and confidently hopes for, he may well be called even now blessed, though not in reality so much as in hope.”27 Tarsicius J. Van Bavel, “Love” in Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia, ed. Allan D. Fitzgerald, John Cavadini, Marianne Djuth, James O’Donnell, FrederickVan Fleteren (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999), 509; cf. Aquinas, 80-81: “…the greatness of a virtue, as to its species, is taken from its object. Now, since the three theological virtues look at God as their proper object, it cannot be said that any one of them is greater than another by reason of its having a greater object, but only from the fact that it approaches near than another to that object. And in this way charity is greater than the others, because the others, in their very nature, imply a certain distance from the object; for faith is what is not seen, and hope is of what is not possessed. But the love of charity is of that which is already possessed, since the beloved is, in a manner, in the lover, and, again, the lover is drawn by desire to union with the beloved…”

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is the telos of faith and hope, and maintains the central locus

within Augustine’s theology, bringing together all dimensions of

the Christian existence: man’s harmonious inner (devotional) and

outer (ethical) life through loving obedience to God’s commands,

the vertical and horizontal directions of man’s relationships

with God and neighbor, and finally the temporal and eternal

dimensions as man is carried across the barrier of time into

God’s presence. For Augustine, true worship occurs when love is

the centrifugal force for these inward-outward-eternal dimensions

for the Christian life. Love is the very heartbeat of true

worship.

Searching for a strict definition of love in the Enchiridion

is difficult. Augustine consciously defines ‘faith’ and ‘hope’

outright, but often discusses love in context of its necessity

for faith and hope. Love’s necessary accompaniment to faith and

hope is stated at the outset: “Now what shall I say of love?

Without it, faith profits nothing; and in its absence, hope

cannot exist...”28 Faith’s focus on love guards it from self-

destructive vanity, while hope’s very existence is dependent upon

28 Enchiridion, 9.14

one day uniting to God who is love. Its primacy and greatness

above faith and hope, however, is not disclosed until the very

end as stated in the following passage:

And now as to love, which the apostle declares to be greater than the other two graces, that is, than faith and hope, the greater the measure in which it dwells in a man, the better is the man in whom it dwells. For when there is a question as to whether a man isgood, one does not ask what he believes, or what he hopes, but what he loves. For the man who loves aright no doubt believes and hopes aright…29

As a rule love determines the measure of one’s goodness. Love

fulfills worship’s faithful posture and hopeful living in the

Christian life as it is the essence of God-likeness. By nature,

it is precisely one’s measure of love that determines one’s

greatness because it is God-like: “the greater the measure in

which it dwells in a man, the better is the man in whom in

dwells.”30 All of this points to love’s dynamic that “a person

“is” what he or she loves.”31 To discuss love, therefore, is to

discuss the essential characteristic for what it means to be a

Christian, to become like God.

29 Ibid., 135 (emphases mine).30 Ibid., 135.31 Van Bavel, 509.

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Love brings man’s inner and outer life into harmony as the

means and end of ethical behavior.32 The Christian’s heart and

body unite in the act of worship via keeping the commandments in

love as they are intended. “All the commandments of God, then,

are embraced in love…the end of every commandment is charity,

that is, every commandment has love for its aim.”33 As opposed

to a purely legalistic understanding of ethics, in which the

attitude or motive is irrelevant in regards to behavior, love

requires that righteous acts be consistent with one’s inner

disposition toward God. “Wherefore, all God’s commandments…are

rightly carried out only when the motive principle of action is the love of

God…”34 The Christian’s love of God, therefore, is the source

for all forms of obedience and leads to true virtue. As

explained by Langan, Augustine “understands the moral life of the

Christian as the progressive development of charity, which is the one

explanatory entity that underlies the activity of all the

32 Langan, 87.33 Enchiridion, 139; cf. Van Bavel, 510 (emphasis mine): “Even the simple virtuesof daily life can be seen as forms of love: joy, peacefulness, patience, goodwill, fidelity, gentleness, and honesty. They all are based on love, for nobody can be gentle, faithful, meek, or honest if there is love. The same istrue of humility and purity of heart. It is always a matter of love. Love orientates us in life. However, this does not release us from the obligation to seek the right direction ourselves, because virtue is essentially ordered love…”.34 Ibid., 139 (emphasis mine).

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virtues.”35 The converse applies as well that any ethical

transgression is fundamentally a transgression against love, and

the measure of the offense for Augustine is taken in reference to

love; in other words, the greater the harm to love, the greater

the offense.36 The attention Augustine devotes to faith in his

explanation is justified, then, as one’s understanding of evil

(chs.XI-XXIII) and ethical behavior is the resulting purification

of love’s increasing as the Christian draws nearer to God.

Augustine’s thought contrasts sharply with contemporary

understandings of freedom, as Augustine does not believe

obedience inhibits one’s freedom. On the contrary, since “God is

the transcendent source of all being and goodness, obedience to

God, which brings us to union with him, is the means by which we

become more free and more perfect.”37 The measure of one’s love

reveals one’s true freedom. Consequently, “every sin is more

35 Langan, 91 (emphasis mine). Also, see his previous paragraph: “Augustine thus identifies love as the explanatory entity that accounts for, and so is effectively present in, the cardinal virtues. He also goes on to claim that this love is directed to God who is “the chief good, the highest wisdom,” and who serves as the end and goal of love.36 Ibid., 93.37 Thomas Hibbs, “Introduction” in Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1996), xi (emphasis mine); cf. Enchiridion, 36-37.

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hurtful to the sinner than to the sinned against.”38 ‘True

worship’ now consists in obedience to God and has become the

sphere of true freedom. Rather than enslaving followers through

legal obedience, love interprets adherence to the commandments as

pointing believers in the direction which they ultimately are

intended to go: toward God.

When asked to choose the greatest commandment of all, Jesus

responds in two parts: “Love the Lord your God with all your

heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is

the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it:

‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”39 A loving heart and righteous

living, then, characterize how Christians relate to God

(vertically) as well as with their neighbor (horizontally)

respectively. The love of God must come first in order for the

love of neighbor to be true to itself. Loving one’s neighbor

without regard for their Creator and ultimate purpose is

idolatrous as loving God is exchanged for loving man. Treating

one’s neighbors so, whether sharing life or meeting their needs,

38 Ibid., 20.39 Mt. 22.37-40 (NIV)

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leads to humanistic liberation, not true liberation, because it

flips the great commandment backwards. Salvation then becomes

sought in each other rather than in God. Authentic relationships

entail keeping each other’s’ eschatological happiness in union

with God as their primary motivation and means. To include the

final phrase to the aforementioned quote: “all God’s

commandments…are rightly carried out only when the motive

principle of action is the love of God, and the love of our neighbor in

God.”40 This order must be maintained. Otherwise, faith will

lose its focus on eternal happiness and hope’s promising future

will vanish along with death.

Love is the only grace that survives the passing away of

time. Once hope’s future materializes into the present, it is

fulfilled and exists no more. When faith sees that which it has

believed during its absence, faith becomes true knowledge. Love,

on the other hand, carries the believer across the threshold of

time from the present into that future that is eternally present,

40 Enchiridion, 139-140 (emphasis mine); see n.34. Cf. Ibid., 10.19

uniting them to God.41 As eloquently stated by Augustine

elsewhere:

But sight shall displace faith; and hope shall be swallowed up in that perfect bliss to which we shall come: love, on the other hand, shall wax greater when these others fail. For if we love by faith that which as yet we see not, how much more shall we love it when we begin to see! And if we love by hope that which as yet we have not reached, how muchmore shall we love it when we reach it!42

This metaphor of sight is important for Augustine. At the

beginning he states, “when the mind has been imbued with the

first elements of that faith which worketh by love, it endeavors

by purity of life to attain unto sight, where the pure and perfect in

heart know that unspeakable beauty, the full vision of which is

supreme happiness…we begin in faith, and are made perfect by

41 Van Bavel, 511 (emphases mine): “Love unites us with God as our eternal, everlasting good…In this life our love of God consists mostly in desiring, not yet in fulfillment. But in contrast to faith and hope, love has an everlasting nature; it will never come to an end. The darkness of faith will be replaced by the light of vision. Hope will cease when we possess the object of our hope. This does not apply to love. On the contrary, our love will become perfect when we have attained God as our supreme good.”42 On Christian Doctrine, 635; cf. Enchiridion, 140: “We love God now by faith, then we shall love Him through sight.”; also cf. Augustine, City of God. Ed. Robert Maynard Hutchins and Mortimer J. Adler, trans. Marcus Dods. Great Books of the Western World 18 (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952), 516: “There the virtues shall no longer be struggling against any vice or evil, but shall enjoy the reward of victory, the eternal peace which no adversary shall disturb. This is the final blessedness, this the ultimate consummation, the unending end.”

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sight”.43 In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul concludes his short discourse

on love by stating the following: “For now we see in a mirror

dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall

know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope,

and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Faith perceives its object of ultimate beauty and good, but love

improves faith’s sight more and more as the Christian draws near

in worship. The more mature one grows, the more clearly love

sees. Ultimately what is sought, the eschatological worship

experience, is the unhindered sight of God, known as ‘the

beatific vision’.44

In conclusion, the Enchiridion is a pithy, cohesive

articulation of the Christian life. Comprehensive in its scope,

yet concise enough for a handbook, Augustine has imparted a

43 Enchiridion, 5 (emphases mine); cf. Aquinas on the “three dowries of the soul”, of which one is vision (along with comprehension and enjoyment). Aquinas correlates the each with a theological virtue: “Thus the three dowries correspond to the three theological virtues, namely vision to faith, comprehension (or enjoyment in one sense) to hope, and enjoyment (or delight according to another reckoning) to charity.” Ibid., 1048-1049.44 Cf. City of God, 614-616; also cf. Van Bavel, 510: [l]ove is the most eminentcommandment, for love unites us with the object of our love in a stronger way than faith and hope. The latter imply a greater distance between us and what is believed or hoped for. But through love our likeness to God is growing andlove brings us nearer to him…the greater our likeness to God, the more our love will increase, and the more clearly we will perceive God, for God is love.”

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treasure for all generations. Because of worship’s centrality in

Augustine’s exposition, this work primarily describes how man

relates to God, not the other way around. Therefore, the

Enchiridion is of utmost practicality and relevance for the

Christian’s daily living in light of God. Man’s stance before

God is fundamentally a posture of worship, the truest form of

which is experienced by the interwoven workings of faith, hope,

and love. Through taking the first steps of faith in confession,

then progressing in hopeful and obedient living, and always

keeping one’s love centered around God and his salvific work in

Jesus Christ, one experiences the answer to man’s most innate

question: what is man’s purpose in life? Augustine’s answer is

clear: to worship and enjoy God.

Worship’s greatest culmination as the beatific vision is

perhaps best illustrated in the final canto of Dante’s Divine

Comedy. The long and arduous journey that began traveling

through the inferno with his tour guide, Virgil, has finally come

to its end by following Beatrice into the heart of paradiso.

Leading up to this encounter Dante has endured thorough

examinations concerning faith (canto XXIV), hope (XXV), and love 22

(XXVI). Finally, when granted that beatific vision which has

been the ultimate cause for his journey, he describes his

encounter in terms of swooning happiness resonant with

Augustine’s own understanding:

And I, who neared the goal of all my nature,

felt my soul, at the climax of its yearning,

suddenly, as it ought, grow calm with rapture…

Little by little as my vision grew

it penetrated further through the aura

of the high lamp which in Itself is true.

What then I saw is more than tongue can say.

Our human speech is dark before the vision.

The ravished memory swoons and falls away.45

45 Dante, The Divine Comedy, trans. John Ciardi (New York, NY: New American Library, 1970), p.891.

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------. On Christian Doctrine. Ed. Robert Maynard Hutchins and Mortimer J. Adler, trans. Edward Bouverie Pusey. Great Books of the Western World 18, 621-698. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952.

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