THE PHILOSOPHER AS TEACHER AUGUSTINE’S ADVICE TO COLLEGE TEACHERS: EVER ANCIENT, EVER NEW

Abstract: St. Augustine’s short treatise Instructing Beginners in Faith (De Cate-chizandis Rudibus) is one of his less well known works, but it provides some fascinating insights on pedagogy that are applicable to college teaching. For Augustine, education is best understood as a relationship of love, where teacher and learner function in a reciprocal system. If the teacher is enthusiastic, the students respond, drawing even more energy from the teacher. If the teacher is dull, or if the students are unresponsive, the learning environment spirals down-ward. Augustine’s relational analysis allows him to diagnose and prescribe cures for some of the problems contemporary college and university teachers often encounter in their classrooms