Happiness and Wisdom: Augustine’s Early Theology of Education by Ryan Topping (review)

326 BOOK REVIEWS Happiness and Wisdom: Augustine’s Early Theology of Education. By RYAN TOPPING. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2102. Pp. 272. $65.00 (cloth). ISBN: 978-0-8132-1973-8. The subtitle of Ryan Topping’s book is intriguing. One would expect something like “Augustine’s Early Theory of Education,” or “Augustine’s Early Theology,” but not “Augustine’s Early Theology of Education.” The book offers the promise of something more than a mere review of the ancient educational curriculum of liberal arts (which was actually never uniform [3 n. 6]) in Augustine’s early writings up to A.D. 391. Topping does not disappoint. He provides an insightful analysis of how Augustine transformed the traditional curriculum “for the purposes of Christian instruction” (1). The author’s thesis is precisely that “Augustine’s early outline of liberal education is an aspect of his moral theology” (8; cf. 15, 65-66, 229). After all, synthesizing “the classical curricula within the structure of moral theology” is arguably Augustine’s original achievement (11). Attention to a patristic educational theory is, in itself, noteworthy in light of the modern, near-universal neglect of the history of educational thought (6-7). It is hard not to agree with Topping that contemporary educational theorists have been on the John Dewey diet for too long, and consequently ancient wisdom is often deemed irrelevant or even backward and unenlightened. However, Augustine draws attention to exactly the things of which contemporary educators and educational theorists should take notice, such as the importance of prayer, community, and authority in the process of learning. Saying this loudly and clearly is arguably one of the most important contributions of Topping’s book. Chapter 1 looks at educational theory and practice prior to Augustine’s time, especially the way various Christian authors appropriated the classical tradition of education. A place of honor is accorded to Basil’s Ad adulescentes, the most important Christian assessment of this tradition before Augustine. Chapter 2 begins and chapter 3 continues a study of Augustine’s everdeveloping theory of education as it initially ripened in a two-fold, antiskeptical and anti-Manichean, context. Topping is very deliberate in studying his topic(s) contextually. This is certainly laudable and meets in every way the current expectations of wissenschaftlich research. However, I would raise two issues. First, contexts are never objectively given, fixed, and ready to be used for everyone who would like to work on them. Contexts, whether historical, theoretical, literary, or personal, are always interpretative reconstructs. As such, they are already and inevitably contaminated with the presuppositions, biases, and interests of the one who reconstructs them for his own particular purposes. This amounts to saying that describing the larger context for Augustine’s early theology of education, as well as setting up the sought continuities and contrasts, may generate a false albeit convenient sense of objectivity and clarity. No doubt, Topping is aware of all this, yet a more BOOK REVIEWS 327 deliberate acknowledgement of the provisional character of various recreated contexts would have improved the discussion. Second, a contextual study does not have to dedicate many pages to the details of the context(s) themselves. The work of contextual study has to be done—no doubt—but the question remains whether all the results of such work need to be published as well. In this particular case, we have a 230-page study of which the first 100 or so pages are “surveys” of contexts (in the author’s own words, 65 and 91). The “surveys” are helpful and edifying, especially for nonspecialists, but they are not nuanced and meticulous enough to provide much more than a background for Augustine’s positions. Learning as a theological activity certainly benefits from prayer. Topping explains that “Prayer both redirects the intelligence away from material goods as objects of aspiration and aids in the reintegration of the soul by a unifying act of the will” (102). Although he does not elaborate much on prayer, the very fact that he brings it up is significant. Learning as a quest for happiness in God is a “graced” activity that includes both cultivation of virtue (i.e...