Love Actually: Modeling Amor in Augustine’s De catechizandis rudibus
Loading...
Authors
Cameron, Michael
Issue Date
2018
Volume
15
Issue
Type
Journal Article
Language
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
A Carthaginian deacon named Deogratias asked Augustine for advice on how to improve his teaching for inquirers. Augustine obliged by writing De catechizandis rudibus (On Instructing Beginners), a masterful survey of need-to-know essentials on the story of salvation, the unity of Scripture, and their deep center in Christ. But the work did more than teach the basics of faith. Augustine saw that the deacon needed not only more information but also more assiduous practice in giving his learners the humble Christian love that he was teaching about. Beginning with descriptions of God’s accommodating love to humanity in Christ, Augustine demonstrated the crucial role of love in the work of a Christian teacher by displaying it literarily to Deogratias by his kindly approach and way of writing. Not merely giving commands or spouting theories, Augustine’s De catechizandis rudibus subtly offered a model of love itself for the beginning teacher Deogratias to imitate.|Keywords: Deogratias, love, teacher, humility, Christology, beginner, model
Description
Citation
Cameron, M. (2018). Love Actually: Modeling Amor in Augustine’s De catechizandis rudibus. Supplement Series for the Journal of Religion & Society Supplement Series, 15, 48-69.
Publisher
Rabbi Myer and Dorothy Kripke Center, Creighton University
License
Journal
Volume
Issue
PubMed ID
DOI
Identifier
Additional link
ISSN
1941-8450