The reception and systematization of augustinian thought in Thomas Aquinas’s reflection on the teacher and the act of teaching

The thought concerning the action of teaching by the human teacher in Thomas Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo has been extensively studied. However, when compared, both thinkers are often presented as offering two distinct ways of understanding this action. On the one hand, the Augustinian approach—strongly influenced by Platonism—denies the causality of the human teacher and grounds all teaching activity in the illumination of the Inner Teacher. On the other hand, the Thomistic approach—clearly influenced by Aristotelianism—while not denying the role of inner illumination, attributes to the human teacher an external efficient causality in the generation of knowledge in the student. As a result, the two are frequently contrasted or regarded as fundamentally different ways of exercising the teaching office. This paper seeks to examine how, despite their differences, Thomas Aquinas appropriated and integrated significant aspects of Augustinian thought in shaping his own vision of the teacher. This vision, while original, is deeply rooted in the Christian tradition and is especially evident in his work De Veritate, particularly in the section known as De Magistro, though it is presented with greater clarity in the Summa Theologiae, due to the order in which the question is addressed there. Thus, this study aims to determine whether Aquinas’s reception of Augustinian thought is merely incidental or whether it involves a deeper assimilation that enables him to present a fuller and more authentic understanding of the figure of the teacher—one that would not be possible without the Augustinian contribution.