Origen’s and St. Augustine’s Ideas on Education

Abstract

The article presents Origen’s and St. Augustine’s theories of education. Origen and Augustine were not create a “theories of education” in the literal sense of the term. Plato laid down the traditions of political education. This meant that the philosophical school specialized in rethinking the key meanings of the term “politeia” (πολιτεία), i.e., on the creation of effective models of state and global (= interstate) governance. Governance models were created as copies of the kalos cosmos. State power was seen in them as an opportunity to transform society in accordance with the proclaimed transcendental ideal. The political theories of Plato, Origen, and Augustine were all created in the inextricable unity of the specific discourse and way of life. This fact allowed author to speak about them as theories of education. The philosophical school taught the way of life that followed from the created political theories. In the literal sense, the theories created in the philosophical school are theories of the society transformation in accordance with the understanding of the kalos cosmos and the idea of agathos. In modern terminology, this sounds like “the transformation of society in accordance with the “ideal model” of global sustainable development”.

Keywords

• Origen
• Origen’s theory of education
• Augustine of Hippo
• Augustine’s theory of education
• Plato
• idea of philosophy