Book 15

Summary

Outline

1. The previous fourteen books are summarized. (1.1–4.6)

2. The truth that God is perfectly simple is explained. (5.7–7.11)

3. For God all things are present. (7.13)

4. We must distinguish (a) bodily perception, (b) memory, and (c) the perception of eternal objects. (8.14–9.16)

5. We must distinguish written and spoken words, their mental images, and the thoughts they express. (10.17–11.21)

6. My indubitable knowledge that I live defeats skepticism. (12.21–22)

7. We return to God's absolute simplicity. (13.22)

8. We return to consider words and thoughts. (14.23–15.25)

9. The Christian message is restated. (16.25–28.51)

Chapter 1

Wanting to train the reader in the things that were made so that he might know Him by whom they were made, we have now at last arrived at His image, which is man. But it is man in that by which man is superior to other animals, namely, in reason and understanding, and whatever else can be said of the rational or intellectual soul that pertains to that thing which is called “mind” [mens] or “rational soul” [animus]. Several Latin authors, according to their own special terminology, called animus that which excels in man and is not in the beast, thus distinguishing it from anima which is also found in the beast.