Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1726-1728.Mary, a disciple of Christ - St Augustine UPBC Strategic Goal Statement, Villanova University.Ģ9. On the Spirit and the Letter, 17.18.11.Ģ6. Secular Augustinians: The Rule of Life and General Statues, 17.Ģ5. Can universities be Catholic? Some reflections, comments, worries, and suggestions. Hughes (eds.) Augustine and liberal education, pp. Augustine’s pedagogy of intellectual liberation: Turning students from the “truth of authority” to the “authority of truth.” In K. Spiritual Journey: Augustine’s Reflection on the Christian Life, p. “Application of Augustine’s Spirituality to an Academic Community.”ġ0.

Pontifical Council for the Laity, Formation of the Laity, III, Parish VI, Types of Formation, in Enchiridion Vaticanum, Volume 6, Rome, 1980, pp 667, 691.ħ. Members look upon their work as an expression of one’s human nature, not as a burden, but in cooperation with the Creator in shaping the world and serving humankind.Īlways conscious of the virtues of honesty, integrity, and compassion as fundamental to the Christian way of life, 23 members seek in every effort to work for unity, making justice and peace, the fruits of love, a reality in the Church and in the world. Members strive to live in harmony - in a quest for union of mind and heart, 21 to mutual concern for and assistance to each other in every way possible, including fraternal correction, in a spirit of love and understanding. In such a community “love is at the center and the heart” of every act and interaction, 20 and respect for each person, as children of God, is primary. In an Augustinian community, the purpose of life is to search for God, the Ultimate truth, not alone, but among friends, 19 who are committed to the same journey. “An Augustinian community is a place where the search for truth takes place in a climate of love and friendship, where one can experience that the ‘truth is neither yours nor mine, so that it can belong to the both of us.” 18 In the Augustinian model, faculty and students form an egalitarian learning community, pursuing goals as “friends, brothers, sisters, sharing with others what they have or gain, and receiving what God has given or will give” to each.

The academic community acknowledges belief in God as reasonable, places each discipline in conversation with the Catholic intellectual tradition, and creates an environment “where being a faithful Catholic is taken seriously as an intelligent and morally responsible option for contemporary people.” 16 The intended outcome is less dependence on the teacher’s “authority” but greater appreciation for “truth,” both discovered and revealed during principled and collaborative inquiry. Honesty and humility characterize “disciplined conversation” between faculty and student, during which students develop confidence in their abilities to reason and to assert for themselves discovered truth. This pursuit of wisdom coincides with the search for Truth for which every person longs. Learning, “cultivation of the mind,” in the Augustinian context, is to be understood as more than the pursuit of “academic excellence” or of knowledge for its own sake, but more appropriately as the pursuit of wisdom, the capacity to understand one’s self, others and the world in light of the Ultimate reality. In the Augustinian model of education, both faculty and students are “servants of the truth,” who place instruction and learning in the disciplines at the service of development of intellect.

Augustine on unity quotes