Totum Enim Quod Intelligo, Volo Ut Qui Me Audit Intelligat: An Examiation of S. Augustine as a Teacher of Catechumens in the De Catechizandis Rudibus

Abstract

Many individuals in the ancient western world, whether Greek, Roman or otherwise, have captured the hearts and minds of their contemporaries and us moderns alike. Few, however, have captivated quite as many as Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo Regius in the North of Africa. Inarguably one of the brightest thinkers of his age, even of all human history, Augustine’s influences on philosophy and Christian theology have changed the intellectual landscape of the western world even into our time. One can scarcely handle either of those topics without at least coming across his name or ideas, and yet how deeply has any man, even one entirely devoted to the saint’s work, really understood him, that creator of, as Dr. Philip Cary put it, ‘the inner self’1.