MEMBACA SEBAGAI JALAN PEMURINIAN JIWA

Studi atas De Doctrina Christiana, Karya Agustinus dari Hippo

Abstract

Reading has a closed connection to meditation (meditatio) which classically refers to a type of thinking, a mental exercise, or practice. So, reading has an immediately impact to human soul that is, so to say in a religious sense, to make it purified. Augustine of Hippo is one of Latin Fathers that made such a connection in his own way. In one of his seminal works, De Doctrina Christiana, that I am working on, the saint makes that connection showed up. He describes his program in that work as recovering first the correct method of understanding Scripture, surely by studious reading and then the correct method of presenting it. Due to the former which is treated in the Book I-III, he presents the reader as a studious one who works on “sign”/“thing” and “use”/”enjoyment” distinction; and to the later which is treated in the Book IV, he presents the reader as an eloquent preacher. The fourth book can be described, more or less adequately, as a manual for those who face the task of setting forth the truth of Scripture in clear and persuasive speech. By doing so, one (the reader) exercises himself/herself for the sake of purification of his/her own itinerant mind in God.