Lumen Fidei - page 30

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meaning of the text by moving away from the
biblical notion of trust in God towards a Greek
notion of intellectual understanding. Yet this
translation, while certainly reflecting a dialogue
with Hellenistic culture, is not alien to the under-
lying spirit of the Hebrew text. The firm foun-
dation that Isaiah promises to the king is indeed
grounded in an understanding of God’s activity
and the unity which he gives to human life and
to the history of his people. The prophet chal-
lenges the king, and us, to understand the Lord’s
ways, seeing in God’s faithfulness the wise plan
which governs the ages. Saint Augustine took up
this synthesis of the ideas of “understanding”
and “being established” in his
Confessions
when
he spoke of the truth on which one may rely in
order to stand fast: “Then I shall be cast and set
firm in the mould of your truth”.
17
From the
context we know that Augustine was concerned
to show that this trustworthy truth of God is, as
the Bible makes clear, his own faithful presence
throughout history, his ability to hold together
times and ages, and to gather into one the scat-
tered strands of our lives.
18
24. Read in this light, the prophetic text leads
to one conclusion: we need knowledge, we need
truth, because without these we cannot stand
firm, we cannot move forward. Faith without
truth does not save, it does not provide a sure
17
 XI, 30, 40: PL 32, 825
.
18
 Cf.
ibid
., 825-826.
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