On Faith and the Creed · §14 · Augustine of Hippo

Sitting at the right hand of the Father means judicial power, not bodily posture

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Augustine is explaining the creed's clause that Christ sits at the Father's right hand, warning against imagining God in human bodily form.

We also believe that he sits at the right hand of the Father. But this does not mean we should think of God the Father as bounded by human shape, so that when we think of him a right or left side comes to mind. Nor should we suppose that when the Father is said to sit, he does so with bent knees. Otherwise we fall into the sacrilege for which the apostle curses those who changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of a corruptible human (Romans 1:23). It is wicked for a Christian to set up such an image of God in a temple; it is far more wicked to set it up in the heart, where the temple of God truly is, once it has been cleansed of earthly desire and error. So we must understand “at the right hand” as meaning in the highest blessedness, where justice, peace, and joy are. In the same way, the goats are placed at the left (Matthew 25:33), that is, in misery, because of the labors and torments of wickedness. Therefore when God is said to sit, this does not signify a position of bodily parts but judicial power. That majesty is never without this power, always giving to each what each deserves, although at the final judgment the unmistakable glory of the only Son of God, the judge of the living and the dead, will shine far more openly among human beings.

Latin

Credimus etiam, quod sedet ad dexteram patris. nec ideo tamen quasi humana forma circumscriptum esse deum patrem arbitrandum est, ut de illo cogitantibus dextrum aut sinistrum latus animo occurrat; aut id ipsum, quod sedere pater dicitur, flexis poplitibus fieri putandum est, ne in illud incidamus sacrilegium, in quo exsecratur apostolus eos, qui commutauerunt gloriam incorruptibilis dei in similitudinem corruptibilis hominis. tale enim simulacrum deo nefas est christiano in templo conlocare; multo magis in corde nefarium est, ubi uere est templum dei, si a terrena cupiditate atque errore mundetur. ad dexteram ergo intellegendum est dictum esse (in summa beatitudine', ubi iustitia, pax et gaudium est, sicut ad sinistram haedi constituuntur, id est in miseria, propter iniquitatis labores atque cruciatus. sedere ergo quod dicitur deus, non membrorum positionem, sed iudiciariam significat potestatem, qua illa maiestas numquam caret, semper dignis digna tribuendo, quamuis in extremo iudicio multo manifestius inter homines unigeniti filii dei iudicis uiuorum atque mortuorum claritas indubitata fulsura sit.