The way of knowing [1] within the Augustinian tradition is consonant with biblical (and, therefore, incarnational) imaging of personal involvement [2] and mutuality reflecting the quality of truth [3] that draws us into community: [4] it is holistic [5] and humanistic; [6] unites heart and mind, [7] love and knowledge, [8] practice and theory; [9] authenticates inner- and inter-personal experiences; [10] responds to human restlessness; [11] fosters moral reasoning;[12] invites cultivating one’s self; [13] develops the desire to search out the unknown; [14] seeks unity [15] in humility; [16] and is a transforming experience. [17]
In summary: the way of knowing within the Augustinian tradition is a journey seeking truth (veritas) and discovering understanding; a dialogue with learners different from ourselves (unitas) leading to understanding; and a transformational wholeheartedness (caritas) opening the doors of understanding. [18]
Commentary
[1] "The objective of education is wisdom, contrary not to ignorance, but to foolishness (cf. Beata 28)" (Fincias). "Regarding the originality of his pedagogical thinking, it may be said that St. Augustine neither claimed to be original, nor was he. In fact, he embraced, Christianized and implemented the pedagogical knowledge he had inherited from the earlier Greek-Roman culture, above all the Greek 'paideia’ and, within it, the 'mayeutica’ of Socrates in more concrete terms" (Del Rio). Augustine did not develop a "detailed methodology for teaching and learning. Rather, he provided "directions, such as: 1) Learning through Transforming Experiences, 2) Possessing Wholehearted Love for Learning [caritas], 3) Being Passionate for Learning Truth [veritas], and 4) Learning to Desire Unity [unitas]" (McCloskey, Pedagogy).
[2] In the process, the learner cultivates (1) desire for authenticity, (2) capacity for discernment, and (3) sense of transcendence (Keller, Formation). "When we cultivate these learning dispositions in dialogue with the Inner Teacher, we have begun to apply Augustine’s experience to our own" (McCloskey, Cracked Pots). For the concept of Inner Teacher, see Notes 5, 10.
[3] Seeing truth in the Augustinian tradition is neither solely subjective nor objective: "truth is neither 'out there’ nor 'in here,’ but both. Truth is between us, in relationship … Truth is found as we are obedient to a pluralistic reality, as we engage in that patient process of dialogue, consensus seeking, and personal transformation in which all parties subject themselves to the bonds of communal truth. Such a way of knowing is more likely to bridge our gaps and divisions than drive us farther apart. Such a way of knowing can help heal us and our broken world" (Palmer).
[4] "The truth is neither mine nor yours, so that it can be yours and mine" (Commentary on the Psalms, 103, 2, 11). For Augustine, all knowledge is personal, that is, it involves the personal contribution of the knower ("Listen to the voice of truth in reflection and in silence so that you are able to understand it;" Sermon 52, 19, 22). It is passionate or "engaged" knowledge, energized by the heart or the desire to know. As personal, it is ideally communal. In other words, Augustine’s educational maxim is simul quaeramus—let us search together: simul (together) means learning is a public enterprise, an inquiry "with" others (dialogue); quaeramus (searching) means zetetic (Pierre Hadot) or "dynamic searching" that keeps learning demanding, open, and unfinished— fundamentally a lifelong process, a "restless journey" (McCloskey, Pedagogy). Learning "aims at creating a life changing agenda. It is not about short run training. It is … for the long run … It works as a chain of learning and reasoning" (McCloskey, Considerations). The goal of learning "is clearly an unfinished project … In this sense education never finishes, and makes the world a great classroom in which all human beings are partners on the way together" (Morahan). "Search in ways to make discoveries, and discover in ways to keep on searching" (Augustine). "Let us therefore search as people who are going to find, and find as people who are going to go on searching" (The Trinity 9, 1, 1). "Always add something more. Keep on walking. Always forge ahead" (Sermon 169, 18).
[5] Learning in the Augustinian tradition involves all dimensions of the person. Augustine recognizes that persons are organic wholes: learning happens in, through, and with the intellect, the heart, the body in, through, and with every aspect that makes each person uniquely individual. Learning is the dynamic that integrates every person’s inner–outer reality. "The outer [person] grows and develops by the acquisition, from outside to inside, of more and more knowledge and skills. Whereas the inner [person] develops and grows by self-expansion from inside to outside, dynamising what is potentially already, and the light of the 'inner teacher’ which [every person] carries inside" (Fincias).
[6] Augustine’s way of learning reflects his theological reasoning. He "pursues anthropology theologically [an anthropology that reflects upon the Grace-full relationship between God and humans] and theology humanistically" (Fincias). Learning "therefore is human above all: human in the way it [functions], humanistic because of the implications it entails, humanizing because the two disciples [inner teacher and learner] involved become more of a man/woman, more of a [person]" (De Arriba).
[7] "Contrary to other philosophies and pedagogies, which are exclusive works of the mind – opus mentis – … mind-and-heart are so strongly bonded in the quest for truth in the Augustinian metaphysics of knowledge that stemming only from their embrace – amplexus veritas (Lib. Arb. II. 13,35) – is the hope of attaining the 'delicious knowledge’ pursued" (Del Rio). For Augustine, "the speculative and abstract knowledge of Aristotelian philosophy does not suffice, and only the affective knowledge of the truth is perfect knowledge" (Del Rio).
[8] "The love of knowledge and truth should invite us to continue learning. The love of others should compel us to teach" (Answers to the Eight Questions of Dulcitius, 3). "If love finds a place within you, the fullness of knowledge will follow (Commentary on the Psalms, 80, 2). "Love itself is knowledge: the more one loves the more one knows" (St. Gregory). – Reminder: loving is an act of the will; see also Note 9. – Learning in the Augustinian tradition "consists in learning to love and learning to think, which is the path to true freedom." Experiencing freedom means "acting on the basis of interiority, from the truth and love residing in the interiority" (Seco; for the concept of interiority, see Note 10). Augustine’s "equation between the heart and the intelligence is 'intelligent love’" (Seco). In other words, Augustine can tell a person to "love and do what you will" (Homily on 1 John 2,8) because, for him, true love (agape) does not misuse knowledge (Tack).
[9] Because, as Blaise Pascal puts it, "the heart has its reasons that reason does not know," learners engage their minds and deepen their lives by integrating the speculative (mind) and practical (heart) in their studies. "Knowing the right thing was not enough[. Augustine] also had to develop the will to act rightly. Such actions show possession of a wholehearted love for what one learns" (McCloskey, Pedagogy). Learning in the Augustinian tradition "strives to arrive at action through reflection on experience taking into account accumulated wisdom" (McCloskey, Cracked Pots). In light of Augustine’s emphasis on the will, "authentic Augustinian pedagogy demands that disposition and learning are put into action through practice. This practice (praxis) reflects Augustine’s own arrival at effective learning" (McCloskey, Cracked Pots).
[10] Learning is the dynamic relationship between the student and inner and outer teachers (De Magistro). The outer teacher facilitates the dialogue between the student and truth. However, "[t]he true teacher is the Interior Teacher, the God who is within" (Morahan). "How much wealth is stored within each one of us! But what use is this wealth to us, if we do not investigate it?" (Commentary on the Psalms, 77, 8). "We have but one Teacher and, under him, we are all fellow students. We are not teachers because we speak in front of a class. The true Teacher speaks from within." (Sermon 134, 1, 1). The outer teacher "open[s] up the Truth to the student," "open[s] up the student to the Truth," and also opens up the Truth for him- or herself, which "makes the teacher a fellow student" (Morahan). Although persons "need illumination (enlightenment from the Inner Teacher), human reasoning plays an essential role in the search for truth" (McCloskey, Pedagogy).
[11] "You have made us for yourself and our heart is restless until it rests in you" (Confessions, I, 1,1). Human restlessness leads to "knowledge about our external world to the more deeply spiritual and religious knowledge. For Augustine, everything is now best sought in the light of faith and with the help of the Scriptures" (Morahan). He "knew keenly the difference between a journey toward meaning and understanding and a purposeless wandering. While everyone’s learning journey is life-long, he saw that we need to be making steady progress rather than meandering. … For Augustine, a meaningful restless journey is a pilgrimage, a sacred action" (McCloskey, Cracked Pots).
[12] In the Augustinian tradition, learning has "a 'mystique,’ a spirituality, a profound motivation stimulating values" (Fincias). Learning is initiation into the mystery of God that nurtures personal and communal involvement with Christ in the Spirit. Augustine’s "turn to interiority" led him to discover "the divine presence within him, the immanence of the transcendent God. The 'within’ of Augustine was primarily the discovery of himself as will (or person) in the presence of the divine Will (or the God of the Bible)." (Scanlon; see also Section II, Note 2) In the Augustinian tradition, "interiority is an essential part of the new spiritual currents of post-modern sensitivity: it is transcendent otherness." It is not "selfhood," but the "imago Dei" that "each person bears as a seed" so that from it people may "ascend to the knowledge of and encounter with the personal God of Jesus Christ" (Del Rio). Values provide the ambiance as well as the object of this involvement with Christ. They include convictions mediated by the Catholic Christian tradition, in particular, the concern for a more just, sustainable and peaceful world, "a better world, a 'new city’ still to be discovered and built" (De Arriba).
[13] "Augustinian education is self-education, and invitation to work on the arduous cultivation of one self (Conf. X, 16,25) and to unravel the depth and mystery of one’s own existence (Conf. X, 8, 15)" (Seco).
[14] Augustine’s willingness to confront problems and think through their implications comes from the biblical concept, "love casts our fear" (McCloskey, Considerations).
[15] "Augustine’s own learning taught him how to build a structure of cohesive interdependence (unity) among the elements and methods of knowledge [freedom, community, interdependence, love of God through love of neighbor, humility, solidarity, etc.]. As he tells us, 'Reason is the faculty to analyze and synthesize the things that ought to be learned. … Both in analyzing and in synthesizing it is a unity that I seek, a unity that I love. But when I analyze, I seek a homogeneous unity; when I synthesize, I look for an integral unity.’ This understanding encourages a pedagogy of 'multiple intelligences’ in which good reason and good thinking occur in varieties of form and through different frameworks of logic and reasoning" (McCloskey, Considerations; see also Note 5 above).
[16] "The first step in the search for truth is humility. The second, humility. The third, humility. And the last one, humility" (Letter 118, 3, 22). For Augustine, "community was a school for dialoguing with the Inner Teacher, meeting Whole Christ (Totus Christus), learning the humility necessary for true learning and learning that teaching is service not status" (McCloskey, Pedagogy).
[17] Augustine’s learning experiences are transformational, "often termed conversions (philosophical, intellectual, moral, religious). Transformation came through dialogue with the Inner Teacher" (McCloskey, Pedagogy). For him, "transformation only becomes 'real’ learning when learners can integrate learning within themselves. From such a perspective, all education is a form of self-education" (McCloskey, Cracked Pots).
[18] McCloskey, Cracked Pots.
