Opinion: Augustine, Genesis, and “Removing the Mystical Veil”: Part I

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Part one of my two-part series on the affect of Augustine’s worldview on his reading of Genesis is up at Biologos (“Augustine, Genesis, and “Removing the Mystical Veil”: Part I“).   My previous posts on Origen of Alexandria (“Origen on the Species“) examined Origen in much the same way.

Augustine’s approach to the Bible, then, is inseparable from his Neoplatonic worldview. He had no qualms about borrowing from philosophy. As the Jews plundered the Egyptians, taking their gold, Augustine believed Christians should take the gold of great thinkers, since gold belonged to God “wherever it was.” Biblical figures, like the Apostle Paul and his citing of a poet and philosopher in Acts 17:28, provided justification for such an approach…. Read part 1 at Biologos…