Seeing and Believing in Augustine’s De videndo Deo

Abstract

The aim of my paper is to clarify the content and function of the distinction between seeing and be-lieving stated by Augustine in his De videndo deo. I try to achieve this in three steps. First, I briefly describe the genesis, the fundamental ideas and the structure of De videndo deo. Second, I analyse in detail the distinction between seeing and believing put forward in the first part of Augustine’s text. Finally, I show the role that this distinction plays in the overall argument of De videndo deo.Keywords: faith, God, theophanies, value of theological opinions, vision