Hermeneutical principal number 12: St. Augustine's pastoral advice on science and religion. As we noted previously, St. Augustine is one of the most important theologians in the history of the church. He was also a priest, and he offers us some pastoral advice that's applicable today. In science-religion debates, Augustine reminds us: never lose perspective on what is most important to Christianity, our faith, not science. In a fascinating passage, from his book on the early chapters of Genesis, St. Augustine writes, "It is also frequently asked what our belief must be about the form and shape of heaven according to Sacred Scripture. Many scholars engage in lengthy discussions on these matters, but the sacred writers, that is the biblical writers, with their deeper wisdom, have omitted them. Such subjects are of no profit for those who seek beatitude. And, what is worse, they take up precious time that ought to be given to what is spiritually beneficial." And then, Augustine asks, "What concern is it of mine whether, number one, heaven is like a sphere and the Earth is enclosed by it and suspended in the middle of the universe," which, of course, this is the Greek geocentric world. Continuing, Augustine then asks, "Or whether, number two, heaven, like a disk above the Earth, covers it over on one side." And this is referring to the ancient 3-Tier Universe. Augustine then concludes, "The Spirit of God who spoke through them, that is the sacred writers, did not wish to teach men these facts that would be of no avail to their salvation.". A couple of comments. First, Christianity concerns spirituality, not science. It deals with beatitude, which means things that are spiritually beneficial and, in particular, dealing with salvation. Also note that scientific concordism was entrenched in the early Church. There were debates over the form and shape of heaven according to Sacred Scripture. And these debates involved many scholars, and they were frequently asked and led to lengthy discussions. In contrast to the debate over evolution today, the science-scripture debate in Augustine's day was over astronomy. He identifies that there were two main views, the geocentric universe, with heaven as a sphere which was, for the most part, the science-of-the-day in the fifth century, and the other view was the ancient three-tier universe, with heaven being a disk above the earth. And of course, this was the first conception of the structure of the universe. But notably, no one today holds either view of the structure of the universe. And the lesson to be learnt from this, is that debates over concordism in Augustine's day, were a waste of time. Let's apply Augustine's pastoral advice to Genesis 1-11. Do lengthy and frequent discussions today on scientific concordism in Genesis 1-11, do they take up precious time, and are they of no profit spiritually? Or to put this question more bluntly, are debates over scientific concordism in Genesis 1-11 a waste of time? What do you think? End of episode.