The Church Fathers · 401–415
On the Literal Meaning of Genesis
De Genesi ad Litteram
Augustine of Hippo · 354 – 430
What it is
Fourteen years on the first three chapters of Genesis, and still unfinished at the end. God made everything at once, Augustine argues, planting causes that unfold in time. It also warns believers not to talk nonsense about the natural world in front of people who know better, since they will conclude the scriptures are nonsense too.
Why it lasted
The most careful ancient attempt to read Genesis without either flattening it or evaporating it, and the passage on speaking nonsense about nature has been quoted in every science-and-religion argument since Galileo used it against his own accusers.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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