• Home
  • Works
  • Introduction Guide Collaboration Sponsors / Collaborators Copyrights Contact Imprint
Bibliothek der Kirchenväter
Search
DE EN FR
Works Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Enchiridion ad Laurentiom, seu de fide, spe et caritate The Enchiridion
I.

Chapter 2.--The Fear of God is Man's True Wisdom.

The true wisdom of man is piety. You find this in the book of holy Job. For we read there what wisdom itself has said to man: "Behold, the fear of the Lord [pietas], that is wisdom." 1 If you ask further what is meant in that place by pietas, the Greek calls it more definitely theosebeia, that is, the worship of God. The Greeks sometimes call piety eusebeia, which signifies right worship, though this, of course, refers specially to the worship of God. But when we are defining in what man's true wisdom consists, the most convenient word to use is that which distinctly expresses the fear of God. And can you, who are anxious that I should treat of great matters in few words, wish for a briefer form of expression? Or perhaps you are anxious that this expression should itself be briefly explained, and that I should unfold in a short discourse the proper mode of worshipping God?


  1. Job xxviii. 28 ↩

pattern
  Print   Report an error
  • Show the text
  • Bibliographic Reference
  • Scans for this version
Translations of this Work
Enchiridion oder Buch vom Glauben, von der Hoffnung und von der Liebe (BKV) Compare
The Enchiridion
Commentaries for this Work
Introductory Notice - The Enchiridion

Contents

Faculty of Theology, Patristics and History of the Early Church
Miséricorde, Av. Europe 20, CH 1700 Fribourg

© 2023 Gregor Emmenegger
Imprint
Privacy policy