Theology - Accuracy

In reading Augustine's Confessions, chapter III.4 today (click here or the title of the post above for the text), I came across this line:

"Still rejoicing, I blushed that for so many years I had bayed, not against the Catholic faith, but against the fables of fleshly imagination. I had been both impious and rash in this, that I had condemned by pronouncement what I ought to have learned by inquiry."

He's slowly taking steps that will ultimately bring him to trust in Christ for salvation (Book 8), but in this section he's struggling with doubts, and one of the things he realized was not that he rejected what he calls "the Catholic faith," but that he'd rejected "fables of fleshly imagination" about it.

This is an important lesson. Before coming to conclusions about any point of doctrine (or really anything), it is absolutely critical that you are hearing the most accurate and well-argued positions you can find, especially for ideas you're going to disagree with. Make sure you're not condemning "by pronouncement" (from a favorite book, or author, etc.) what you should've learned by your own "inquiry" first.

Hard work to do that? Yes, but when Augustine did this he received an accurate picture of God, which brought him to rejoicing because nothing's more important than having accurate knowledge when making a decision, especially when it's for or against God.