Augustine's True Form

This week in class we discussed Augustine's discourse on how to interpret Christian doctrine, namely the Bible. In particular, the idea that there is a correct way to interpret the Bible, a way that is more accurate than any other. This specific perspective is that the Bible has only one voice, and that is of love, kindness, justice and self-fulfillment. This, Augustine might say, is the highest form of understanding of the Bible.

In reading Augustine's On Christian Teaching, this concept struck me in its close relationship to the Platonic idea of forms, specifically the form of Truth. According to Plato, there is one meaning for each form of every word, it is the "One over the Many." Augustine asserts that the one Truth to the meaning of the Bible is based, primarily, in love; the love of God, the love of one's fellow human beings. Any other meanings are those that Plato would call opinion rather than knowledge; an illusion or appearance of knowledge rather than the true form, or the one moral standard. It makes sense to me to have a single interpretation of the Bible, whereby all moral questions can be resolved because there is no ambiguity within the answer (in this case, answer meaning the text of the Bible). When there is only one interpretation, opinion and falsehood are nullified and, in this case, love is the ultimate understanding.