Augustine and poetic exegesis

When one thinks of Augustine in connection with poetry and literary aesthetics, certain topics immediately come to mind, such as his attitudes towards classical literature and rhetoric, as well as their implications for Christian teaching, especially in the De doctrina christiana . In fact, these well-known topics have become commonplaces of Augustinian scholarship. As far as the aesthetic element in Christian literatureis concerned, it has been firmly subordinated to didactic purposes in prose preaching and it has been reduced to a supposedly purely cognitive affair in exegesis. Augustine's preceptin the De doctr. chr. (2.40.60-61) to take from paganculture what is useful reads like an encouragement to practice allegorical interpretation of paganliterature and mythologyin the manner of Lactantius. Keywords: Augustine; Christian literature; De doctrina christiana ; mythology; paganallegorical interpretation; poetic exegesis