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Book IV.

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xvii.vii99 words

Book IV.

Addressed to Vincentius Victor.

He first shows, that his hesitation on the subject of the origin of souls was undeservedly blamed, and that he was wrongly compared with cattle, because he had refrained from any rash conclusions on the subject. Then, again, with regard to his own unhesitating statement, that the soul was spirit, not body, he points out how rashly Victor disapproved of this assertion, especially when he was vainly expending his efforts to prove that the soul was corporeal in its own nature, and that the spirit in man was distinct from the soul itself.

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The Personal Character of This Book.

xvii.vii.i

The Points Which Victor Thought Blameworthy in Augustin.

xvii.vii.ii

How Much Do We Know of the Nature of the Body?

xvii.vii.iii

Is the Question of Breath One that Concerns the Soul, or Body, or What?

xvii.vii.iv

God Alone Can Teach Whence Souls Come.

xvii.vii.v

Questions About the Nature of the Body are Sufficiently Mysterious, and Yet Not Higher Than Those of the Soul.

xvii.vii.vi

We Often Need More Teaching as to What is Most Intimately Ours Than as to What is Further from Us.

xvii.vii.vii

We Have No Memory of Our Creation.

xvii.vii.viii

Our Ignorance of Ourselves Illustrated by the Remarkable Memory of One Simplicius.

xvii.vii.ix

The Fidelity of Memory; The Unsearchable Treasure of Memory; The Powers of a Man’s Understanding Sufficiently Understood by None.

xvii.vii.x

The Apostle Peter Told No Lie, When He Said He Was Ready to Lay Down His Life for the Lord, But Only Was Ignorant of His Will.

xvii.vii.xi

The Apostle Paul Could Know the Third Heaven and Paradise, But Not Whether He Was in the Body or Not.

xvii.vii.xii

In What Sense the Holy Ghost is Said to Make Intercession for Us.

xvii.vii.xiii

It is More Excellent to Know That the Flesh Will Rise Again and Live for Evermore, Than to Learn Whatever Scientific Men Have Been Able to Teach Us Concerning Its Nature.

xvii.vii.xiv

We Must Not Be Wise Above What is Written.

xvii.vii.xv

Ignorance is Better Than Error. Predestination to Eternal Life, and Predestination to Eternal Death.

xvii.vii.xvi

A Twofold Question to Be Treated Concerning the Soul; Is It ‘Body’? and is It ‘Spirit’? What Body is.

xvii.vii.xvii

The First Question, Whether the Soul is Corporeal; Breath and Wind, Nothing Else Than Air in Motion.

xvii.vii.xviii

Whether the Soul is a Spirit.

xvii.vii.xix

The Body Does Not Receive God’s Image.

xvii.vii.xx

Recognition and Form Belong to Souls as Well as Bodies.

xvii.vii.xxi

Names Do Not Imply Corporeity.

xvii.vii.xxii

Figurative Speech Must Not Be Taken Literally.

xvii.vii.xxiii

Abraham’s Bosom—What It Means.

xvii.vii.xxiv

The Disembodied Soul May Think of Itself Under a Bodily Form.

xvii.vii.xxv

St. Perpetua Seemed to Herself, in Some Dreams, to Have Been Turned into a Man, and Then Have Wrestled with a Certain Egyptian.

xvii.vii.xxvi

Is the Soul Wounded When the Body is Wounded?

xvii.vii.xxvii

Is the Soul Deformed by the Body’s Imperfections?

xvii.vii.xxviii

Does the Soul Take the Body’s Clothes Also Away with It?

xvii.vii.xxix

Is Corporeity Necessary for Recognition?

xvii.vii.xxx

Modes of Knowledge in the Soul Distinguished.

xvii.vii.xxxi

Inconsistency of Giving the Soul All the Parts of Sex and Yet No Sex.

xvii.vii.xxxii

The Phenix After Death Coming to Life Again.

xvii.vii.xxxiii

Prophetic Visions.

xvii.vii.xxxiv

Do Angels Appear to Men in Real Bodies?

xvii.vii.xxxv

He Passes on to the Second Question About the Soul, Whether It is Called Spirit.

xvii.vii.xxxvi

Wide and Narrow Sense of the Word 'Spirit.'

xvii.vii.xxxvii

Victor’s Chief Errors Again Pointed Out.

xvii.vii.xxxviii

Concluding Admonition.

xvii.vii.xxxix