The Church Fathers · c. 391–392
On the Profit of Believing
De Utilitate Credendi
Augustine of Hippo · 354 – 430
What it is
To a friend still with the Manichaeans, who had promised reason and delivered a story. Augustine answers that everyone believes far more than they can verify — that these are your parents, that this city exists — and that belief on trustworthy authority is not the opposite of knowledge but the road to it.
Why it lasted
The classic Christian answer to the demand that nothing be believed without proof, and the first clear statement of the order Anselm would later compress into faith seeking understanding.
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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