View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Book Two.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to Augustine, how should misunderstood signs become understood?
(a) By committing the misunderstood words or expressions to memory.
(b) By examining the context in which things appear as signs.
(c) By considering how the used thing is accepted by the community.
(d) By examining the use of the word that appears to be a thing.

2. What does Augustine say the student pass through if he/she will be able to understand Scripture?
(a) Stages of spiritual purification and understand the need for God and Christian virtues.
(b) Rigorous physical and mental challenges to prove to God the seriousness of the desire to learn.
(c) A 40-day period of seclusion and fasting so they can better know the mind of Christ.
(d) The purging of unclean spiritual occupations that are too common in the pagan cultures.

3. According to Augustine, how can signs become ambiguous?
(a) By being things that don't appear as signs.
(b) By containing misunderstood words or expressions.
(c) By being used things that are also enjoyed.
(d) By being words that appear as things.

4. What is the logical inconsistency of the critics that Augustine confronts in the Preface?
(a) If these critics believe learning only comes through the possession of "special gifts," why do they teach?
(b) If these critics believe they need no training, why are they reviewing Augustine's works?
(c) If learning only comes through community, why does Scripture encourage separation for prayer?
(d) If these critics believe that Scripture can only be learned through "special gifts," and God wants everyone to know scriptures, then why doesn't everyone have "special gifts"?

5. What does Augustine claim to be the central law of love and the message of Christianity?
(a) That the one illuminated truth is to love thy neighbor who loves God.
(b) That one thing that is illuminated truth is loving God and then thy neighbor.
(c) That one should find illuminated truth to love God and thy neighbor.
(d) That one should love God and love thy neighbor.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Augustine identify as the relationship between all other things and the object of ultimate worship?

2. What are the two primary reasons that Augustine devotes his time to those questions?

3. What is the main difference between the system of learning that Augustine advocates and that advocated by the critics he focuses on in the Preface?

4. What are the two categories of signs Augustine identifies in Book Two?

5. Based on Augustine's Preface, what is the perception of critics toward learning?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 661 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample