A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin
Classic translationLatin original
5th c. · Dogmatic & Doctrinal · English translation, 1890
Source edition: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I (ed. Philip Schaff, 1886–90)
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Contents
- Extract From Augustin’s Retractations
- Advertisement to the Reader on the Following Treatise
- Treatise on the Soul and Its Origin
- Introduction
- Renatus Had Done Him a Kindness by Sending Him the Books Which Had Been…
- He Receives With a Kindly and Patient Feeling the Books of a Young and…
- The Eloquence of Vincentius, Its Dangers and Its Tolerableness
- The Errors Contained in the Books of Vincentius Victor. He Says That the Soul…
- Another of Victor’s Errors, That the Soul is Corporeal
- Another Error Out of His Second Book, to the Effect, That the Soul Deserved to…
- Victor Entangles Himself in an Exceedingly Difficult Question. God’s…
- Victor’s Erroneous Opinion, That the Soul Deserved to Become Sinful
- 9. Victor Utterly Unable to Explain How the Sinless Soul Deserved to Be Made…
- Another Error of Victor’s, That Infants Dying Unbaptized May Attain to the…
- 11. Martyrdom for Christ Supplies the Place of Baptism. The Faith of the Thief…
- Dinocrates, Brother of the Martyr St. Perpetua, is Said to Have Been Delivered…
- The Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ Will Not Avail for Unbaptized…
- 14. Victor’s Dilemma: He Must Either Say All Infants are Saved, or Else God…
- God Does Not Judge Any One for What He Might Have Done If His Life Had Been…
- Difficulty in the Opinion Which Maintains That Souls Are Not by Propagation
- He Shows That the Passages of Scripture Adduced by Victor Do Not Prove That…
- By ‘Breath’ Is Signified Sometimes the Holy Spirit
- The Meaning of ‘Breath’ In Scripture
- 20. Other Ways of Taking the Passage
- 21. The Second Passage Quoted by Victor
- Chapter 22.—Victor’s Third Quotation
- Chapter 23.—His Fourth Quotation
- Whether or No the Soul is Derived by Natural Descent (Ex Traduce), His Cited…
- 25. Just as the Mother Knows Not Whence Comes Her Child Within Her, So We Know…
- The Fifth Passage of Scripture Quoted by Victor
- Augustin Did Not Venture to Define Anything About the Propagation of the Soul
- 28. A Natural Figure of Speech Must Not Be Literally Pressed
- The Sixth Passage of Scripture Quoted by Victor
- 30. The Danger of Arguing from Silence
- 31. The Argument of the Apollinarians to Prove that Christ Was Without the…
- The Self-Contradiction of Victor as to the Origin of the Soul
- 33. Augustin Has No Objection to the Opinion About the Propagation of Souls…
- 34. The Mistakes Which Must Be Avoided by Those Who Say that Men’s Souls are…
- Conclusion
- Book 2
- Introduction
- Depraved Eloquence an Injurious Accomplishment
- He Asks What the Great Knowledge is That Victor Imparts
- 3. The Difference Between the Senses of the Body and Soul
- 4. To Believe the Soul is a Part of God is Blasphemy
- In What Sense Created Beings Are Out of God
- 6. Shall God’s Nature Be Mutable, Sinful, Impious, Even Eternally Damned
- 7. To Think the Soul Corporeal an Error
- 8. The Thirst of the Rich Man in Hell Does Not Prove the Soul to Be Corporeal
- How Could the Incorporeal God Breathe Out of Himself a Corporeal Substance?
- Children May Be Found of Like or of Unlike Dispositions With Their Parents
- Victor Implies That the Soul Had a ‘State’ And ‘Merit’ Before Incarnation
- How Did the Soul Deserve to Be Incarnated?
- Victor Teaches That God Thwarts His Own Predestination
- Victor Sends Those Infants Who Die Unbaptized to Paradise and the Heavenly…
- Victor ‘Decides’ That Oblations Should Be Offered Up for Those Who Die…
- Victor Promises to the Unbaptized Paradise After Their Death, and the Kingdom…
- 17. Disobedient Compassion and Compassionate Disobedience Reprobated. Martyrdom…
- Victor’s Dilemma and Fall
- Victor Relies on Ambiguous Scriptures
- 20. Victor Quotes Scriptures for Their Silence, and Neglects the Biblical Usage
- Victor’s Perplexity and Failure
- Peter’s Responsibility in the Case of Victor
- Who They Are That Are Not Injured by Reading Injurious Books
- Book 3
- Introduction
- Augustin’s Purpose in Writing
- Why Victor Assumed the Name of Vincentius. The Names of Evil Men Ought Never to…
- He Enumerates the Errors Which He Desires to Have Amended in the Books of…
- Victor’s Simile to Show That God Can Create by Breathing Without Impartation of…
- 5. Examination of Victor’s Simile: Does Man Give Out Nothing by Breathing?
- 6. The Simile Reformed in Accordance with Truth
- Victor Apparently Gives the Creative Breath to Man Also
- Victor’s Second Error. (See Above in Book 1. 26 [XVI.].)
- His Third Error. (See Above in Book 2. 11 [VII.].)
- 10. His Fourth Error. (See Above in Book 1. 6 [VI.] and Book 2. 11 [VII.].)
- His Fifth Error. (See Above in Book 1. 8 [VIII.] and Book 2. 12 [VIII.].)
- His Sixth Error. (See Above in Book 1. 10-12 [IX., X.], and in Book 2. 13, 14…
- His Seventh Error. (See Above in Book 2. 13 [IX.].)
- 14. His Eighth Error. (See Above in Book 2. 13 [IX.].)
- His Ninth Error. (See Above in Book 2. 14 [X.].)
- God Rules Everywhere: and Yet the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ May Not Be Everywhere
- 17. Where the Kingdom of God May Be Understood to Be
- His Tenth Error. (See Above in Book 1. 13 [XI.] and Book 2. 15 [XI.])
- His Eleventh Error. (See Above in Book 1. 15 [XII.] and Book 2. 16.)
- Augustin Calls on Victor to Correct His Errors. (See Above in Book 2. 22…
- 21. Augustin Compliments Victor’s Talents and Diligence
- A Summary Recapitulation of the Errors of Victor
- Chapter 23.—Obstinacy Makes the Heretic
- Book 4.
- Introduction
- The Personal Character of This Book
- The Points Which Victor Thought Blameworthy in Augustin
- 3. How Much Do We Know of the Nature of the Body?
- Is the Question of Breath One That Concerns the Soul, or Body, or What?
- God Alone Can Teach Whence Souls Come
- Questions About the Nature of the Body Are Sufficiently Mysterious, and Yet Not…
- We Often Need More Teaching as to What is Most Intimately Ours Than as to What…
- 8. We Have No Memory of Our Creation
- Our Ignorance of Ourselves Illustrated by the Remarkable Memory of One…
- 10. The Fidelity of Memory; The Unsearchable Treasure of Memory; The Powers of…
- 11. The Apostle Peter Told No Lie, When He Said He Was Ready to Lay Down His…
- The Apostle Paul Could Know the Third Heaven and Paradise, But Not Whether He…
- In What Sense the Holy Ghost is Said to Make Intercession for Us
- It is More Excellent to Know That the Flesh Will Rise Again and Live for…
- We Must Not Be Wise Above What is Written
- 16. Ignorance is Better Than Error. Predestination to Eternal Life, and…
- A Twofold Question to Be Treated Concerning the Soul; Is It ‘Body’? and is It…
- 18. The First Question, Whether the Soul is Corporeal; Breath and Wind, Nothing…
- Whether the Soul is a Spirit
- The Body Does Not Receive God’s Image
- Recognition and Form Belong to Souls as Well as Bodies
- 22. Names Do Not Imply Corporeity
- Figurative Speech Must Not Be Taken Literally
- 24. Abraham’s Bosom—What It Means
- The Disembodied Soul May Think of Itself Under a Bodily Form
- St. Perpetua Seemed to Herself, in Some Dreams, to Have Been Turned Into a Man…
- 27. Is the Soul Wounded When the Body is Wounded?
- 28. Is the Soul Deformed by the Body’s Imperfections?
- Does the Soul Take the Body’s Clothes Also Away With It?
- 30. Is Corporeity Necessary for Recognition?
- Modes of Knowledge in the Soul Distinguished
- 32. Inconsistency of Giving the Soul All the Parts of Sex and Yet No Sex
- 33. The Phenix After Death Coming to Life Again
- Prophetic Visions
- 35. Do Angels Appear to Men in Real Bodies?
- He Passes on to the Second Question About the Soul, Whether It is Called Spirit
- Wide and Narrow Sense of the Word 'Spirit.'
- Victor’s Chief Errors Again Pointed Out
- Chapter 39.—Concluding Admonition