City of God - Augustine - XXXIV - Book 17 commenced

Required reading
City of God by Augustine (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Commence Book 17 by reading Chapters 1 to 8.

My summary
Now we look at the development of the City of God through the era of the prophets which Augustine says begins with Samuel.

Augustine says that in the Old Testament we can find three meanings of the text in reference to the City of God.  Sometimes the text refers to the earthly City of God at Jerusalem.  Sometimes the text refers to the City of God in the Heavenly city of Jerusalem.  Sometimes it refers to both.

Augustine then unpacks the threefold meaning in some of the prophecies in the books of Samuel.  We look at the words of Hannah, the man of God who spoke to Eli, Samuel and Nathan.

What grabbed me
Many good examples today of how to see Christ in the Old Testament. 

And although I have said before that I don't agree with every allegory that Augustine finds in the Scriptures, this comment is good advice 'Now in my opinion it is certainly a complete mistake to suppose that no narrative of events in this type of literature has any significance beyond the purely historical record; but it is equally rash to maintain that every single statement in those books is a complex of allegorical meanings.'

We can go to two extremes - only recognise historical meaning or only find allegory.  Walking the line in the middle takes great wisdom.

Next week's reading
Conclude Book 17 by reading Chapters 9 to 24.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.