Reflecting on St. Augustine at ACS

Maturing as a person, whether it is physical, emotional, spiritual, or intellectual require a person to change and transformation these changes can vary in when or how they take place. While growing up, people change their perspective and gain new insights about new experiences. In “The Confessions,” readers see St. Augustine struggle with the question of “Who am I?” while figuring out his belief in God. The mission of Villanova University is to help create “thoughtful, intellectually-curious, and spiritually-grounded” students before they graduate. Thus, ACS helps transform young children to be mature adults. Students read “The Confessions” in ACS because they see Augustine’s struggle to find his identity and religion on his own terms. Since Saint Augustine is relatable, we read it to see his journey from a child to an intellectual adult where he figures out who he is, his relationship with God, and his passion for finding the truth. ACS helps students accomplish their goal of generating transformations by making students to contemplate about who they are and gain knowledge, polish their skills, and find their values by reading, discussing, and writing about texts.

ACS, a mandatory course for all Villanova students, tries to fulfill their goal of creating “thoughtful, intellectually-curious, and spiritually-grounded” students by reading Augustinian texts such as “The Confessions.” The course’s goal is to show students how they can be like Saint Augustine in his search for a greater truth (Mission Statement). Students see Augustine as a person and not a saint because he lists his flaws through mentioning his very detailed yet minuscule sins. This is important because it’s important for students to see him go through that in his...

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...not think I can really know who I am, what my interests are, or even what my values are yet because I am so much influenced by my family. I cannot differentiate between what I think is my thoughts from what society or my family thinks that I need to believe. Additonally, I do not think ACS can make students know the answer to “Who am I” in a year. It took Augustine a lifetime to understand God is the answer to his identity. Similarly, 18 year-olds should not be asked to answer such a question. At 18, Augustine was confused and filling his desires with lust. I can relate to Augustine because of the current paradigm of “random hook-ups” or consuming alcohol under the legal age in college being the norm. Still, ACS uses “The Confessions” to begin students into realizing that there are many passions waiting to be ignited which in the end will help us answer “Who am I?”