Conversion Through Scripture
The transformative power of Scripture to convert hearts, turn people from vice to virtue, and kindle radical commitment to the Christian life, illustrated through famous conversion stories. A single Gospel voice set ablaze the great Antony; the reading of Paul converted Augustine from heresy and lust.
Preface and Praise of Sacred Scripture
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Chapter I: On the Excellence, Necessity, and Fruit of Sacred Scripture
— A single Gospel voice ("If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have") set ablaze the great Antony with love of evangelical poverty.
"A single voice of the Gospel was able — 'If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor' — to set ablaze the great Antony"
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Chapter I: On the Excellence, Necessity, and Fruit of Sacred Scripture
— Scripture turned Victorinus the Rhetorician from pagan superstition and pride to Christian faith and humility.
"Divine Scripture was able to turn Victorinus, then a puffed-up Rhetorician of the city, from pagan superstition and pride to Christian faith and humility"
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Chapter I: On the Excellence, Necessity, and Fruit of Sacred Scripture
— The reading of Paul converted Augustine from heresy and lust to continence and religious celibate chastity.
"The reading of Paul was able not only to join the heretic Augustine to the orthodox, but, having dragged him from the most foul abyss of daily lust, to drive and advance him to continence and chastity"
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Chapter I: On the Excellence, Necessity, and Fruit of Sacred Scripture
— A single reading of the Beatitudes converted Simeon the Stylite, who then stood on a pillar for eighty years in prayer.
"A single reading of the Gospel was able — "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven; blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be consoled!" — to convert Simeon the Stylite immediately, and to advance him so far that he stood on one foot atop a pillar for eighty continuous years"
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Chapter I: On the Excellence, Necessity, and Fruit of Sacred Scripture
— St. Justin Martyr wandered through Stoic, Peripatetic, Pythagorean, and Platonist schools before finding rest in the Christian ethics of the Sacred Letters.
"he wandered in vain through the more illustrious sects of the Philosophers in a remarkable circuit, like an Odyssey of errors, until at last he found rest in the Christian Ethics of the Sacred Letters"