The article that will be reviewed in this paper is written by Ronnie Campbell. This text’s title is “Ever learning, ever loving: Augustine on teaching as ministry,” and it was published in 2013 in the Eleutheria magazine. The research question that Cambell seeks to explore is Augustine’s views on teaching and the teacher-learner experiences as the main legacy of this theologian. The thesis is that Augustin’s approach to teaching can be applied to the modern view of Christian education.
Campbell’s main argument is that Augustine and his theological convictions should be reviewed from the perspective of a teacher. Augustine should be viewed as a teacher instead of reviewing his contribution merely from a philosophical perspective, which is the approach taken by other researchers. The refutation to this may be the lack of attention, which teaching as something grounded in the principle of loving one’s neighbor, received from other researchers.
One can criticize Campbell’s work due to its lack of potential counterarguments review and refutation. The methods he uses to illustrate his ideas include the analysis of four domains: love for God, love for truth, anthropology, and illumination (Campbell, 2013). He analyses doctrines and texts written by Augustine to support the idea that teaching is grounded in Christianity. Conclusions include the five central ideas of the teacher-learner dynamics.
Most other works perceive Augustine as a philosopher and theologian and review his legacy from this perspective. In terms of mentorship, Augustine was convinced that it is “a spiritual exercise” for the teacher (as cited in Campbell, 2013, p. 18). Moreover, one of the core principle that Cambel advocates is avoiding the practice of merely retelling since education is “truth-centered, and therefore, God-directed” (Campbell, 2013, 30). Overall, the author raises the research question of how one can integrate Christian principles in education, especially education in fields other than theology.
Reference
Campbell Jr., R. P. (2013). Ever learning, ever loving: Augustine on teaching as ministry. Eleutheria, 2(2), 48–32.