Augustine’s Seven Steps to Wisdom and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Last night during a doctoral seminar, Father James Leherberger, O. Cist., Ph.D brought our attention to Saint Augustine’s “Steps to Wisdom” in De doctrina christiana Book 2, Chapter 7. Father Lehrberger suggested that this course toward wisdom may appear elsewhere in Augustine’s corpus (Confessions). As we spoke about it, we realized that these “steps” seems rather similar to the “Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit.”

See for yourself:

Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit in Isaiah 11:2-3 (LXX):

1. Wisdom
2. Understanding
3. Counsel
4. Fortitude
5. Knowledge
6. Piety
7. Fear of the Lord

Saint Augustine’s “Steps to Wisdom” in De Christiana Doctrina Book Two

1. Wisdom
2. *Purification* (different from the traditional Isaian list above)
3. Counsel
4. Fortitude
5. Knowledge
6. Piety
7. Fear of the Lord

Why then does Saint Augustine substitute “purification” for “understanding”?

Whenever I’m confused about something like this, I usually turn to Saint Thomas Aquinas. So I looked up what he said on the “gift of understanding” in Summa theologiae II-II q. 8, a. 7. Thomas cites Augustine where he writes elsewhere:

On the contrary, Augustine says (De Serm. Dom. in Monte i, 4): “The sixth work of the Holy Ghost which is understanding, is applicable to the clean of heart, whose eye being purified, they can see what eye hath not seen.”

So then, Saint Augustine clearly understood the gift of “understanding” in terms of “becoming pure.” This would explain why “step six” is listed as “purification” in Augustine’s De doctrina christiana.

The conclusion then is that Saint Augustine’s “Seven Steps” is simply a new expression of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Pretty nifty.

Biretta tip to Father James Lehrberger.