ABSTRACT
The knowledge of God is based on hearing what God has to say for himself, not seeing him with the mind’s eye in a vision of eternal Truth. It is that concept of vision which has dropped out of Protestant thought. Augustine believes that to understand is to see the truth, and that Truth is God. In Catholic terms, the problem is that Augustine assumes beatific vision is the natural fulfillment of the human intellect. To put teaching and learning in the category of love is, for Augustine, to put it in the realm of ethics—for Augustinian ethics is, famously, an ethics of love, based on an exegesis of these two commandments. This means that the guiding principles of Augustinian pedagogy are no different from the guiding principles of Augustinian ethics. This chapter focuses on three such principles or rather virtues: purity, humility, and charity.
