Religion's Course

In looking at the Psalms in depth we were given a unique view into a pillar scripture that was about to undertake a major overhaul in terms of meaning. At the time the psalms were written the word "king" still had a literal meaning. When Christianity came along the word "king" in the psalms was taken to mean Jesus. This dilemma of meaning does not go unnoticed by Saint Augustine. In his third book of "On Christian Teaching" Augustine address the question of literal versus figurative in the scripture.

Augustine specifically addresses this issue on page 94 when he talks about spiritual Israel vs. fleshy Israel. Augustine's man point is that he prophet whoa wrote the text of the old testament was knowingly talking about the present times and the future. When he said that "I will bring you into your own land" the prophet meant that not only will the Israelites be taken to the promise land, but that all God's followers will be taken to the "promise land".

Whats important and interesting about this point in Augustine, is that it marks the evolution of a religion. Augustine is not only trying to work out the scripture for himself, but establish a frame for the entire Christian religion to understand the bible. Without this frame their wouldn't be any congruity to the christian religion. The text of the old and new testaments would have no connect. Instead the religion as a whole is able to connect the to testaments and move forth into the future.