Martin Claes - Exercitatio mentis and Mystagogy: Exercises in Communal Thinking and Living in De beata vita and De doctrina Christiana

As an experienced teacher Augustine used pedagogic skills such as exercitatio mentis in a diversity of contexts in his written work. Despite Augustine’s extensive application of this concept which was widely used in Stoic and Neoplatonic contexts, he never simply copied this pedagogical method. He transformed it according to the needs of his own developing ideas.

In this paper I focus on exercitatio mentis in the context of a community which became determining for the formation of the individual. I shall address the question whether we can find suggestions that Augustine integrates the pedagogical concept of exercitatio mentis in his vision on mystagogy. In order to provide a contribution to answer this question I will concentrate on the crucial role of the community in this process. In this communication I will focus on Augustine’s pedagogy concerning exercise in virtue in community-life, temperantia and caritas in De beata vita and De doctrina Christiana.