Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume V/On the Soul and its Origin/Book I

A Treatise on the soul and its origin,

by aurelius augustin, bishop of hippo;

419.

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Addressed to Renatus, the Monk.

On receiving from Renatus the two books of Vincentius Victor, who disapproved of Augustin&#8217;s opinion touching the nature of the soul, and of his hesitation in respect of its origin, Augustin points out how the young objector, in his self-conceit in aiming to decide on so abstruse a subject, had fallen into insufferable mistakes. He then proceeds to show that those passages of Scripture by which Victor thought he could prove that human souls are not derived by propagation, but are breathed by God afresh into each man at birth, are ambiguous, and inadequate for the confirmation of this opinion of his.

Contents

 * Chapter 1
 * Chapter 2
 * Chapter 3
 * Chapter 4
 * Chapter 5
 * Chapter 6
 * Chapter 7
 * Chapter 8
 * Chapter 9
 * Chapter 10
 * Chapter 11
 * Chapter 12
 * Chapter 13
 * Chapter 14
 * Chapter 15
 * Chapter 16
 * Chapter 17
 * Chapter 18
 * Chapter 19
 * Chapter 20
 * Chapter 21
 * Chapter 22
 * Chapter 23
 * Chapter 24
 * Chapter 25
 * Chapter 26
 * Chapter 27
 * Chapter 28
 * Chapter 29
 * Chapter 30
 * Chapter 31
 * Chapter 32
 * Chapter 33
 * Chapter 34
 * Chapter 35