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The World According to Augustine
1
Augustine’s Contribution to Modern Education
Horace L. Solomon, III
School of Education, Liberty University
Author Note
Horace L. Solomon, III
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Horace L. Solomon, III
Email: hlsolomon1@liberty.edu
The World According to Augustine
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Abstract
Augustine was one of the greatest philosophers of his time and his influence reaches to modern
times. Many intellectual thinkers have relied on what Augustine thought to shape the way that
they feel about education as a whole. While the world itself has changed drastically, the thoughts
and ways of Augustine are still very fresh in the mind. This paper seeks to explain the philosophy
of Augustine and examine the impact that Augustine has on modern education. While it is true
that education and her trends change every few years, the emphasis that Augustine put on
religion and a divine connection between God and learning is everlasting. Learning comes from
one’s experiences with God and in life, not strictly from a textbook or from the mouth of a
teacher. Learning is only achieved through interactions with God and people of good moral and
ethical standards that are led by God. Augustine promotes love a truth through his philosophy
and shows that a love of people and community helps to spread knowledge.
Keywords:
religion, education, philosophy, Augustine
Augustine’s Contribution to Modern Education
The World According to Augustine
3
Augustine was one of the most profound thinkers of his time and a lot of his thoughts and
ideas are still in use today. His support for the liberal arts and its inclusion in the educational
process reveals that he was more than just an average thinker. Augustine understood that in order
to encapsulate the minds of leaners, they must be interested and engaged in what is being taught
to them. Smith (2020) explains that Augustine relied on his own firsthand experiences to help
him formulate his philosophy of education.
Background and Cultural Context
Augustine’s life work was influenced by his upbringing more than anything else. He was
born to a father who did not believe in God and a Christian mother who doted on him and
implored him to have a relationship with God. His father, on the other hand, was abusive and
abrasive towards Augustine. There is no doubt that he attributed many of the kind things that his
mother did towards him to her Christian lifestyle. Augustine’s firsthand experiences were a
driving force in what he believed in and what he supported as an adult.
Augustine recounts his own experiences in life as the basis for his thoughts on the
subject. Having grown up with parents who were on opposite sides of religion, Augustine relied
on his experiences with spiritual mentors to develop his philosophy of education. Augustine
believed that teachers should have morals and values that the students could not only see, but
also emulate. The virtue that a teacher possessed should be passed to the students through a
fruitful teacher-student relationship that was rooted in love. When learners are fully aware of the
love that encapsulates them, they continue on a lifelong journey to knowledge that is never
challenged. However, without love and virtues, a person is limited in their learning and never
enjoys the fullness of life. Augustine further contends that the teacher also learns a great deal
about the students and becomes more well-rounded in his own vocation.
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The World According to Augustine
4
Philosophy of Education
According to Haecker & Moulin-Stozek (2021), Augustine fought for religious education to
be the brunt of human learning. Much of Augustine’s belief came from the impact that he felt
that God had on his life. As a young man, Augustine dealt with some things that made him
question the true identity of God and once he came to a knowledge of God, he became fixated on
making God the answer to almost everything. Augustine was an opponent of the traditional
philosophers of his day because they felt that a more conservative education that was not solely
based on God was the key to learning. Augustine contends that learning from the words and
actions of a teacher only will lead to a less than happy life. At times, Augustine felt that silence
was a mechanism of learning as well. Caranfa (2013) explained that Augustine felt that silence
gave pupils the option to internalize what they were taught without giving way to
misconceptions. Learning, according to Augustine, comes from a search for understanding what
is unknown rather than anything that can be proven. Augustine’s strong beliefs in religion being
the foundation of learning leads him to reject the thoughts of many other philosophers, including
Meno and Plato, respectively. Augustine believed that learning from teachers limited the
knowledge of students because they had to accept what was taught to them and then decide truth
for themselves. Without the divine inkling from God, Augustine believed that traditional
education was pointless, because God is the beginning of knowledge. According to the article,
Augustine felt that life was to be led by God and that learning comes through the experiences
that God allows for a person to go through. Creativity and investigation were the major means of
learning, and both had to be an integral part of personal experience. Memory is an essential part
of learning and Augustine believes that a close relationship with God will allow one to receive
and retain the knowledge needed to be successful. While other philosophers depend on other
The World According to Augustine
5
means to learn and apply knowledge to life, Augustine considers God to be the Creator and
center of all knowledge and truth. The notion that man can teach or learn anything without the
divine presence of God seems absurd to Augustine.
Theory to Practice
Augustine was greatly influenced by the works of Plato and Socrates and although he did
not fully agree with all of their beliefs, the totality of their work has influenced quite a few
people. Augustine’s love for God and religion-based education remains important because of his
writings and far-reaching influences. Modern thinkers such as Augustine heavily influenced
Rene Descartes and John Henry Newman. Both of these men used what they learned from
Augustine’s works to develop their own ideas about education itself. Descartes broke with some
of his contemporaries when they challenged his belief that learning was something that was
directly inspired by God. He is famous for the quote, “I think, therefore I am,” which means that
a person’s experiences as the basis for his belief.
John Henry Newman was another follower of Augustine who put emphasis on the Church
and its responsibility to educate the masses. Newman was a controversial figure to say the least
because he broke with the Church at times over fundamental reasons. One of Newman’s
similarities with Augustine is that he felt the need for the Church and community to be in tune
with what was going on in the world. His adamance that religious values lead indivduals to
knowledge makes him one of the most renowned thinkers of his time. His contributions led him
to be canonized in 2019.
Perspectives on Diversity
The World According to Augustine
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Diversity was not really something that Augustine really thrived on. He felt that education
that was rooted in truth and love was the key to happiness and success in life (Clair, 2018).
Critical Analysis
Augustine had strong feelings about the inclusion of love and moral fibers in education because
of his own experiences.. He is the proponent of religious education, and he believed that love for
his fellow man and the community was the key to gaining knowledge for oneself. According to
Fogleman (2020), both Origen and Augustine believed that love was the foundation of all truth
and learning. Augustine’s promotion of truth and unity through love is documented here.
Augustine felt that love and happiness were tied to education and that one could not receive a
proper education without them. The teacher mediates between the student and his thirst for
knowledge just as Christ did for the Church, interweaving the student and their learning with
Christ himself. Augustine favored a subject-centered approach to learning that moves away from
the teacher-centered or student-centered approach that measures the successes and failures in an
unfair way. Instead, he promotes the idea that seeking God and love opens the doors for everyone
involved in the learning process.
Implications and Conclusions
Augustine’s love for learning and people can be seen throughout his life’s work. When given
the circumstances of his own upbringing, it would be easy to see that Augustine’s life would not
have been as good as it was without intervention. While it can be implied that Augustine relied
so heavily on God due to his experiences with his mother and other people, that may not be true.
Augustine thrived on self-esteem and inward thinking as the basis for existence with love and
concern for others as the backbone of his thoughts. Augustine’s philosophy has shaped the way
we think about education today in several ways.
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The World According to Augustine
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In today’s realm of education, religion is a separate entity due to legal issues that have come
about. However, the moral and ethics that Augustine supported are still very much in use. The
crux of what students learn today and the amount that they learn is mostly tied to the teacher.
Some people say that children do not learn from people that they do not like or respect and that
may very well be true. Augustine felt that teacher-student relationships were essential to the
transferring of knowledge and that love for one’s community was important as well. If Augustine
were alive today, he would attribute much of the successes and failures to God and honestly, that
may be the best thing to do.
References
The World According to Augustine
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Baker, S. J. (2016). The Augustinian Values Institute: Preserving a Legacy of Augustinian
Education. Journal of Catholic Education, 19 (3).
http://dx.doi.org/10.15365/joce.1903112016
Caranfa, A. (2013). Socrates, augustine, and paul gauguin on the reciprocity between speech and
silence in education.
Journal of Philosophy of Education, 47
(4), 577-
604.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12042
Clair, J. A. (2018;2017;).
On education, formation, citizenship, and the lost purpose of learning
.
Bloomsbury Academic.
https://doi.org/10.5040/9781501326196
Fogleman, A. (2020). The Golden Thread of Charity: Love and the Formation of Character in
Origen and
Augustine.
Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care
,
13
(2), 246–
261.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1939790920943895
Haecker, R., & Moulin-Stożek Daniel. (2021). Recollecting the Religious: Augustine in Answer
to Meno’s Paradox.
Studies in Philosophy and Education,
40
(6), 567-578.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-021-09778-5
Smith, S. J. (2020).
Windows into the history and philosophy of education
. Kendall Hunt. ISBN
eBook 9781792424625, Print Book 9781792424632