In a sense, both of these theologians are on the same side of the debates over faith and reason. In antiquity, there was a major controversy over whether secular learning was of any value to the Christian, famously expressed in Tertullian's question "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?". 

Augustine's response in De Doctrina Christiana was to use the metaphor of the gold the Jews took from Egypt. He argues that pagan learning, like the Egyptian gold, could be put to good use. The study of grammar, ars recte loquendi et enarratio poetarum (the art of correct speech and interpreting texts), was needed for reading the Bible, and other elements of the seven liberal arts were useful in interpreting the literal meaning of the Bible. Rhetoric was important for Christian preachers; although faith and a morally good life were essential for preachers, skill in speaking was necessary to inspire an audience. In the Middle Ages, the phrase "Egyptian gold" was frequently used in discussions about the...

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