| Motto | Credo ut intelligam |
|---|---|
Motto in English | "I believe so that I may understand" |
| Type | Private |
| Established | 1997 |
Religious affiliation | Non-denominational Christian |
| President | John Patrick |
Academic staff | 10 |
Administrative staff | 10 |
| Students | 10 to 22 |
| Address | 45°24′04″N75°41′18″W / 45.4011°N 75.6884°W |
| Campus | Urban |
| Website | augustinecollege.org |
Augustine College (AC) is a private ecumenical Christian liberal arts college in Ottawa, Ontario. Augustine currently offers two semester-long programs focused on the histories of science and the humanities in late and classical antiquity and in the modern era, respectively. AC operates on an unincorporated basis and without program accreditation, [1] but maintains transfer credit agreements with several other postsecondary institutions in North America.
AC was founded in 1997 in Ottawa by a group of university professors "disgruntled" by the fact that traditionally Christian ideals of education were "strangely missing from the curriculum of colleges and universities." [2] The group included John Patrick, then Associate Professor in Clinical Nutrition in the Department of Biochemistry and Pediatrics at the University of Ottawa (now retired), who currently serves as AC's President. [3] Other local university faculty at one time associated with AC have included Edmund Bloedow (University of Ottawa) [4] and David Stewart (Trent University) [5] (both deceased), as well as Dominic Manganiello (University of Ottawa) and David Lyle Jeffrey (Baylor University), who co-edited the volume Rethinking the Future of the University shortly following AC's inauguration. [6] AC drew media attention when its academic dean, Andrew Bennett, was appointed Canada's Ambassador of Religious Freedom in 2013. [7]
AC's promotional material frames the school's vision "to grow in wisdom and in virtue by exploring the riches of Western culture" as a response to perceived deconstructionist trends in mainstream academia, which "is often marked by suspicious attitudes and deconstructive approaches to the content of Western tradition." [8] President John Patrick has elsewhere criticized contemporary universities for fostering what he sees as an increasingly "toxic environment" for religious students. [9] Though AC does not "condemn critical engagement with ideas" as such, its programs are intended to present "the legacy of Western culture as something to be learned from, not only about." [8]
According to its website, AC currently offers two separate, consecutive programs of study. The first of these runs from September to December and is focused on the "Ancient World." Students take courses on the histories of philosophy, science, literature, art, and Christianity, spanning the period from antiquity to the Middle Ages. [10] The second program, running from January to April, is focused on the "Modern World." The historical focus of the courses remains the same and traces their subject matter from the period of the Renaissance down to the present day. [11]
AC does not operate under a provincial or territorial charter and is not listed as a member of Universities Canada. As such, its programs do not lead to the conferral of a degree and most North American universities do not count AC courses toward the requirements of an undergraduate degree. AC does, however, have individual credit transfer agreements in place with several universities in North America. These include Redeemer University, [12] Saint Paul University, [13] and Trinity Western University. [14]
AC hosts an annual public lecture in Ottawa by a well-known Christian intellectual. The lecture series is funded by the Weston Family Foundation. [15] Past Weston Lecture speakers have included Peter Kreeft, [16] Michał Heller, [17] John Behr, [18] and R. R. Reno. [19]
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Peter Robert Lamont Brown is an Irish historian. He is the Rollins Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University. Brown is credited with having brought coherence to the field of Late Antiquity, and is often regarded as the inventor of said field. His work has concerned, in particular, the religious culture of the later Roman Empire and early medieval Europe, and the relation between religion and society.
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Paula Fredriksen is an American historian and scholar of early Christianity. She held the position of William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of Scripture at Boston University from 1990 to 2010. Now emerita, she has been distinguished visiting professor in the Department of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, since 2009.
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Oliver Michael Timothy O'Donovan is a British Anglican priest and academic, known for his work in the field of Christian ethics. He has also made contributions to political theology, both contemporary and historical. He was Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford from 1982 to 2006, and Professor of Christian Ethics and Practical Theology at the University of Edinburgh from 2006 to 2013.
College of Alameda is a public community college in Alameda, California. It is part of the Peralta Community College District and was opened in 1968. Since 1970 the college has held classes on a 62-acre campus at the intersection of Webster Street and Ralph Appezzato Memorial Parkway in Alameda.
John Behr is a British Eastern Orthodox priest and theologian. Since 2020, he has served as the Regius Professor of Humanity at the University of Aberdeen. He is the former dean of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, where he was the director of the Master of Theology Program and the Father Georges Florovsky Distinguished Professor of Patristics. He was ordained to the diaconate on 8 September 2001 and the priesthood on 14 September 2001. He served as the editor of the Popular Patristics Series, published by St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, from 1999 until 2020. He was elected dean of the seminary on 18 November 2006 and served from 2007 until 2017 when he was named Father Georges Florovsky Distinguished Professor of Patristics.
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Jack William Szostak is a Canadian American biologist of Polish British descent, Nobel Prize laureate, University Professor at the University of Chicago, former Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, and Alexander Rich Distinguished Investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. Szostak has made significant contributions to the field of genetics. His achievement helped scientists to map the location of genes in mammals and to develop techniques for manipulating genes. His research findings in this area are also instrumental to the Human Genome Project. He was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol W. Greider, for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres.
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Gerald Glynn O'Collins was an Australian Jesuit priest and academic. He was a research professor and writer-in-residence at the Jesuit Theological College (JTC) in Parkville, Victoria, and a research professor in theology at St Mary's University College in Twickenham. For more than three decades, he was professor of systematic and fundamental theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome).
Andrew Louth is an English theologian. He is an emeritus professor of patristic and Byzantine studies in the Department of Theology and Religion of Durham University. Louth has been at Durham University since 1996. Previously he taught at the University of Oxford and at Goldsmiths' College in Byzantine and early medieval history. He is a fellow of the British Academy and was a member of the British Academy Council from 2011 to 2014. He was President of the Ecclesiastical History Society (2009–10).
David Lyle Jeffrey is a Canadian-American scholar of literature and religion, currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Baylor Institute for Studies in Religion. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (1996-). In 2003 he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Conference of Christianity and Literature.
