In theDe doctrina christianaAugustine lays the foundations of a type of hermeneutics more community oriented than epistemological. Likewise, the rules he formulates have jurisdiction beyond the sole domain of semiotics; as I shall argue, they are applicable, in like (even congruent) manner, to the world of social relations. More fundamentally, these rules are intended to moderate an economy of desire, in which semiotics and social relations find a common origin and, above all, the principles of their harmonious organization. I shall (...) demonstrate these ideas through an analysis of the image of“the voyage towards the homeland” (peregrinatio ad patriam). (shrink)