Confessions by Augustine — BOOK XIII: Finding the Church in Genesis 1

1. 1. Augustine interprets the six days of creation allegorically as the formation of the Church, with the firmament representing the authority of Scripture.
2. 2. The Trinity is discerned in Genesis 1: the Father as God, the Son as the Beginning, and the Holy Spirit borne above the waters.
3. 3. The Holy Spirit is described as 'borne above the waters' to signify the supereminent way of charity that lifts souls upward.
4. 4. Augustine identifies a psychological triad of being, knowing, and willing as a faint image of the Trinity, urging introspection.
5. 5. The 'dry land' represents souls separated from worldly bitterness, producing works of mercy as fruit.
6. 6. The 'lights in the firmament' are spiritual gifts: wisdom as the greater light, knowledge as the lesser, and other gifts as stars.
7. 7. The blessing 'Increase and multiply' applies uniquely to aquatic creatures and humans, signifying the multiplication of signs and meanings.
8. 8. The 'living soul' produced by the earth represents believers who live by self-control and imitate Christ, needing no further signs.
9. 9. God's seeing that creation is 'very good' is not temporal; it is the eternal approval of the whole, which is more beautiful than its parts.
10. 10. The Manichean heresy that evil matter was created by an opposing power is refuted; all creation is good because it comes from the one good God.
11. 11. When the faithful see creation as good through the Holy Spirit, it is God seeing in them, and they love God in his works.
12. 12. The creation account prefigures the entire history of salvation: from formless chaos to the Church, culminating in eternal sabbath rest.