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acroyearI'm not a huge fan of St. Augustine, as his Ciceronian-driven writings opened the dark ages and middle-ages recover to much of the intolerances that drove the crusades and inquisitions. However, there were, apperantly, times at which he himself urged caution when holding to a strictly literal biblical interpretation:
Often a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other parts of the world, about the motions and orbits of the stars and even their sizes and distances, . . . and this knowledge he holds with certainty from reason and experience. It is thus offensive and disgraceful for an unbeliever to hear a Christian talk nonsense about such things, claiming that what he is saying is based in Scripture. We should do all that we can to avoid such an embarrassing situation, lest the unbeliever see only ignorance in the Christian and laugh to scorn." -- St. Augustine, "De Genesi ad litteram libri duodecim" (The Literal Meaning of Genesis)
