I have been enthralled with The Teaching Company's lecture series on
Confessions by St. Augustine.Here is a blurb from the website:
... Written in the 4th century C.E., the Confessions is an opportunity to explore, in one book, questions that have been addressed in many books—by the likes of Plato, Cicero, Freud, and Einstein—for more than a millennium.
How should parents raise children, and how should schools educate children? Why are we attracted to things that are forbidden, and how do we develop addictions? What is time? What is memory and what can it tell us? How can we understand God, or the nature of evil? How should we interpret scripture? What is true friendship? How should we deal with the death of a loved one? Augustine addresses each of these issues, and many more, in a way that few thinkers have been able to equal.
I highly recommend this to all adults and teens. I was amazed at how much his writings relate to us today.
The professors do a wonderful job, they sort of tag team it the whole way through, which makes it very accessible and entertaining. But the substance of St. Augustine continues to amaze me. I really did not know anything about him other than he was great thinker and writer, that he lived about 300 AD and was (is) a saint.
First of all, as most of you know, he converted to Catholicism. It was during the Roman Empire and legal to be Christian (the legalization happened during his lifetime so he knew both sides), but he was raised a pagan, in the pagan world of thought, studying Socrates and Plato. This was also a great further intro to me of those two philosophers.
Augustine was raised in a family that wanted him to succeed. The succeed in those times meant that you studied the classics and became fluent in Latin and taught rhetoric. To lecture, persuade and enlist others was power in those times. (Kind of like having your own cable news show is now...)
As Augustine looked back at his education, he called it his
mis-education. His parents sacrificed to get him into the best schools, he studied all the classics, he became successful at rhetoric in his early adult life, but he said his education failed him. Why?
St. Augustine named three primary influences on his childhood and education, his father, his mother and his school- and all in one way or another, greatly failed him.
Augustine's father was not as wealthy as his schoolmates' fathers, and sacrificed mightily to get Augustine in the good schools. Sound familiar to today? But A figured out that the primary reason his dad this was for prestige and so A would be a success and have the ability financially to take care of his father in his old age.
His mother Monica (a later saint) failed him in childhood, too. St. A had an addiction to lust (I didn't know that!) and when he hit puberty Monica talked with him about this. She said to abstain, but IF he felt he must partake, NOT to marry. Because that would stifle his career. St. A ended up with many mistresses before his conversion when he embraced celibacy.
His schools failed him. He remembers studying and memorizing and even has a passage where he makes light of Virgil the Aeneid (a staple of reading for all classics-studiers back then)- he realized that the school wanted them to be a success in life. Memorize the stuff and be able gifted at rhetoric. What they did not do, he says, is help the students make a connection with the work.
What none of these influences did, St. A says, is to help him reach for 'higher things'. They were all aimed at wordly success.
He was struck by Plato's definition of an education- that that was to reach for higher things. Of course Plato didn't know 'higher things' was God, but Augustine found that out and thus was the "Christainization" of Plato's thoughts.
This amazed me. This is what much of the talk is about as we try and educate our children and understand what it is we are trying to do.
I realized... - what I am trying to do with my sons, is to point them to higher things. It also struck me that there is no "right" way. Any way can work, as long as it is honest. Reading a really good book will show us the mind of this person, and how they explain their experience in this world that God created. So can a science lecture. So can a video game. So can a conversation, a smile, a friendship. But it must be real and aware. We won't always be aware, but in repose, thinking back on our days, we can see the connection. How it all connects to God.
This was perfectly timed with a conversation I had with a homeschool friend I don't get to talk to very often. Her dd was recently married and we talked about her choice to stay home and have kids. My friend told me that we get so wrapped up college, career, success... and we forget to trust God. She is so wonderful at trusting God, I love to hear her talk.
I thought, yes, if we aim for high things for ourselves, and embrace this life, then we will find joy. We can share that with our children. We can share what our children love and find the joy they do. We can TRUST that God will lead us, lead them. There is so much fear out there.
We can trust. God gave us this grace and gift.
Finally, this lecture series really showed me who this saint was as a person. Why higher thought is so important. It is not about having a list to check off that I or my dc have read. It is not about transcripts. It is about discovering life and thought and God- and the saints have been where we are.
For those of you in Houston, the library has this series. I will return it soon!
